Far Too Gone
by Zoya Shaf
Summary: Loki is in a jail cell in Asgard and very weak. He refuses to make amends with his family,but Thor isn't giving up. When Asgard is invaded and Loki taken hostage, Thor turns to his friends to save his brother. Later on, Loki's being kept in Stark Tower and Tony can't help but stick his nose where it doesn't belong. Undergoing editing
1. Not Too Late

**A/N: ****Just a few things before you start reading**

**1) This takes place a while after the Avengers movie after Loki has had some really tough encounters with the Avengers**

**2) Pepper is only Tony's best friend **

**3) Some of the characters may seem OOC...so sorry about that...I guess...**

* * *

Not Too Late

"Brother," Thor's voice was low and solemn. His eyes reflected the depths of his sorrow and his every muscle was slumped. Dejectedly he pushed a strand of blond hair out of his face. The god of thunder sat on his knees in front of Loki's cell. He resembled a man who had lost all hope, who had no faith, and yet still believed. Loki would have smiled at the contradiction but now was not the time. He did not want to anger Thor.

The word "brother" had made a vein twitch in his forehead, as it always did, but Thor hadn't seemed to notice. Instead he continued to stare at him with his pain stricken eyes. But then again, maybe he had noticed but had chosen to ignore it since this had become a daily routine. In the beginning, when Thor would come and sit by Loki's cell, plead with him with his pained eyes, Loki, more out of habit and duty than anything else, would snap back. Then Thor would do some more pleading. After a while, Loki would not response, but instead, stare haughtily at him until all hope left his eyes and he too, left. But being that he was Thor, he would always be back the next day and the cycle would repeat again. Loki had quickly gotten tired of this game. Both of them knew that the other wasn't going to give in no matter what. More recently, Loki had stopped replying altogether ... except for those moments when Thor was _really_ getting on his nerves.

"Brother, please. Why are you acting so foolishly? Come back, father and mother miss you ... I miss you." A pause. Thor was waiting for a reaction that would not come, though Loki had to give him some credit. This was a new tactic of Thor's, much better than "we can figure something out, brother," but still not enough. Nothing would ever be enough. Not for Loki. The gash in his heart, did he even have one? He wondered, was too deep.

"Loki, why do you not see reason?" The mighty warrior's voice cracked and his eyes shone will despair and unshed tears. In that moment Loki hated him more than anything else in all the nine realms. How could he look so pitiful? How could he degrade himself so? Had he no dignity? He was begging and pleading like an insufferable brat. Was he so thick headed that he couldn't understand that Loki was not his brother? And as for not seeing reason, Loki didn't see reason because there was none to see. He had no mother and no father. He was an orphan. Thinking otherwise was to illusion himself.

"Say something, brother." The voice, so far gone, tore him from his raging mind and brought him back to reality; a reality he wished he never had to face.

"It seems that you're too thick headed to understand so I'll say it one last time. I. Am. Not. Your. Brother." Loki added extra emphasis to each word, "And to address me so is disgraceful. You continue to tell me to 'come back.' What have I to come back to? A mother? A father? Pah. I am an orphan, and if that isn't self-explanatory, I have no one. You come here every day and chew out my brain. Your begging is pitiful. Is this what the almighty Thor has to resort to? For what? A Frost Giant? I am in ill temper and do not wish to talk to you." Loki voiced his earlier thoughts even though his voice had no edge to it and came out as a drawl. He was simply tired and weak. The Asgardian cell in which he was in was created to cripple his magic and it was doing a fine job of it. If it weren't, Loki would have left the second he was locked in. Any place, any place at all, was better than Asgard. And anyways, talking to Thor had always been irritating. His brother simply could not understand his high level of think….Loki mentally slapped himself. Thor was not his brother.

But Loki could not help habit. Years of addressing the dunderhead as his brother would not disappear so easily. It was a truth that Loki refused to acknowledge. During this thought process, Loki was vaguely aware of his brother watching him, waiting for something, for anything. He would never learn. Deciding that he would no longer waste any more time, or brain cells, on the god of thunder, Loki got up from his place in a corner of the cell and headed towards his bed to lay down.

For a moment nothing happened. The silence roared in Loki's ears and he wanted to scream but then he heard Thor's heavy sigh. Seriously, the guy acted as if he had the world's weight on his shoulders.

"I will be back, brother. I hope that you will reconsider your choice. It is not too late, yet." Loki listened as Thor's heavy tread got fainter. Once Loki was sure that he was gone, he turned around so that he could lie on his back.

"Not too late…" Loki laughed as he repeated the words. He laughed until tears came to his eyes and his ribs ached. Slowly, his laughter turned to rage. Grasping a rock on the floor next to his bed, Loki threw it at the door that was the entrance to the cell block, a childish act that he was well aware of.

"IT IS TOO LATE!" He screamed. After a moment of silence in which the only sound was his heavy and uneven breathing, Loki's laughter fit began again. "Not too…not too…" Loki couldn't help himself. All the wrong emotions had stirred themselves inside of him and he was about to blow. He couldn't take it anymore. A shaking floor alerted him to the arrival of the guards, probably coming to see why he was screaming, but he didn't care. Instead he doubled over laughing and fell to his bedside. As the laughter ebbed away Loki felt something wet on his face and suddenly he was struck with the situation. Finally after weeks and weeks of putting up with Thor, weeks of keeping his mask on, those three words had set him off. And more importantly…what were these infernal tears? He had believed all his tears to have been dried up a long time ago. He did not, could not, cry.

Apparently he could.

His head snapped to the bars of his cell and he saw the shadows of guards who had positioned themselves around his humble dwelling. He was thinking of Thor being disgraceful, but look at him: having a mental breakdown in the presence of these inferior guards. He would have to be more careful from now on. He recognized the fact that he was weak and tired and that his mind was on edge. Maybe if he had his staff things could have been better, but his beloved staff was in the hands of that insufferable mortal, Stark. The thought made Loki cringe. After a few minutes of sitting on the floor next to his bed, Loki finally pulled himself together, got up from the floor, dusted his clothes, and proceeded to lay down on his bed, only to stare at the white ceiling. It was just him and his thoughts…just him and his demons.

* * *

**Reviews mean the world to me...just saying. **


	2. Dead Ends and Explosions

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their story alerts and favorites. **

**Just a few things you should know before you start reading:**

** a Draug is an undead soldier from Norse Myths ****and in this story the Bifrost was never destroyed **

**and there's a Sherlock Holmes reference out there for those of you who have watched the first movie ... just thought I would mention that ...**

**and yeah ... that's it**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Dead Ends and Explosions

"Tony, don't you think it's time for you to come up?" Steve called from the top of the staircase.

No response.

"Maybe the door's closed," he thought, "or maybe he's just not answering." Steve's mouth turned itself up into a bittersweet smile. Shaking his head he headed back towards the dining table where the rest of the avengers were sitting and eating pizza. Pepper had invited them all over to Stark Mansion in hope that at least one of them could get Tony out of his lab.

None of them had such luck.

"What exactly is he doing down there?" Steve asked once he was back in his seat.

"God knows. He's been down there for five days now. I'm not so much worried about him as I am about the whole place smelling sour." Pepper replied, her nose scrunched.

She looked out of place in the dining room. Other than Clint and Natasha, who were in their work cloths, the rest of them were wearing casual attire and there Pepper was, in strict business attire. Her choice of cloths always shocked Steve, until he realized that she worked in Stark Tower and that she didn't live there.

Steve couldn't help but laugh.

"Is he still working on Loki's staff?" Bruce asked, his voice coming out gruff from in between bites of pizza.

"As I said, God knows what he's been working on," Pepper paused and pursed her lips, "But yeah, probably."

"I thought he gave up on that." Clint wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took yet another slice.

Natasha was watching the scene with a look of slight boredom.

"Well, this is Tony we're talking about." She said. Even though she wasn't particularly fond of the man, being his "secretary" had taught her a few things about him … some of them she wished she didn't have to witness. But that was a different matter.

Pepper only shrugged in return. "Natasha's right. Tony's really into this. You should have heard him before he locked himself into his lab. 'I am on a verge of a scientific breakthrough, Pepper!'" Pepper imitated her bosses' voice, "'I almost cracked the code. It's amazing, you should really see it; how tightly science and magic are entwined.'"

"Really?" Bruce's interest sparked.

Pepper put her hands up, palms facing Bruce. "Whoa … don't ask me," she said before Bruce could ask her any questions. "I have no idea what he meant; I'm not exactly a super genius like Tony."

Chuckles emitted from around the table.

"Have you gone downstairs to check on him?" Steve asked after a while.

Pepper looked at Steve with an expression he didn't quite understand.

"Yes Steve, yes I have." Pepper said with a sigh. Steve was lovely, but she was used to Tony and Steve was the exact opposite. Sometimes he came off as simple minded even though he was anything but. Pepper had to continue to remind herself of the large time gap between his generation and the current generation. Therefore when Steve didn't respond to her exasperated look, she gave up all hope at aiming for sarcasm.

"I went in and talked to him for ten minutes straight before I realized that he hadn't even noticed me come in. Then when he saw me, he asked me what I was doing and I told him to come upstairs and shower, rest, and eat, and he says to me 'There's nothing of interest to me ... out there in the world.'" Pepper elaborated.

"Leave him be. When the stench gets too much he'll come up on his own." Clint joked. He too had gotten to know Tony's lab habits very well. The man was awesome at video games and nice to hang out with, and awesome for archery practice, but when his science gears started, that's when Clint left the room.

"I guess you're right … though probably not. I'll have to have Thor drag him out." Pepper smiled while slightly shaking her head.

"Speaking of Thor, where is he nowadays?" Steve looked around the table at everyone. "And really, Clint, really? How much can you eat?"

Clint shrugged and tried to grin through a mouth full of pizza.

"Probably in Asgard." Pepper replied and Natasha nodded in confirmation. For a while the table was silent.

"Oh well, guess I should reschedule all of tomorrow's meetings." Pepper sighed once again. The life of a secretary was a hard one.

* * *

"Damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN!" Tony would've thrown the little metal container across the room if it hadn't been the most successful prototype as of yet. That wasn't saying much since the container now had black smoke emitting from it; yet another failed attempt.

Tony watched his weeks work disappear with the smoke. He knew he was close, he could feel it. He was so close to deciphering the frequency waves and makeup of Loki's magic. So far he had all the codes for one wave of frequency but the magic was much more than just one wave. It was like a DNA strand with thousands of little genes embedded into it and so far Tony barely had one full gene in his grasp. And anyways knowing was not enough. He needed to be able to harness that power. If only he had a real test subject … but Loki was caged in Asgard.

"So, should I increase the radioactive decay or increase the amount of pressure? How about adding reverse polarity magnets and then …" Ideas flew through Tony's head as fast as the wind.

In the middle of a clutter of screwdrivers, washers, other mechanical parts, piles and piles of blue prints and other sorts of papers, a couple of trays of untouched food sat near the edge of his table in danger of tipping over. If Pepper ever saw them he would be dead. Tony cracked a smile. He couldn't help it, his stomach wouldn't except any food…not until his brain had been fed.

"Blaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Tony made an inhuman noise. Days in the lab were absolutely wonderful; he loved surrounding himself with his machines and gadgets … that was until he hit a wall, which was where he was now.

"Tony, there's still some pizza left over." In the midst of this thought, Pepper's voice floated through his head.

"Pizza," Tony mulled the thought over in head as he fiddled with the container in his hand. "Pizza sounds nice." Tony nodded eagerly as if there was anyone there to see him. As he got up and stretched his sore muscles, he braced himself to face the world.

* * *

"Is something the matter, father?" Thor, his voice laced with concern, addressed Odin, who sat on this throne absentmindedly. The expression did not suit his father's face.

Odin snapped back to reality as his son's voice resounded in his head. He took in the sight of his son's worried face and slightly smiled. The boy really had changed; he would make a swell king one day. For a moment Odin debated with himself. Should he tell Thor the truth?

"I fear for Asgard's safety. Recently there has been a disturbance within the realms." Odin's mouth made a decision for him.

"A disturbance? Heimdall spoke of unrest in Jotunheim and in Hel. Is it the Frost Giant's again?"

Odin internally smiled. Where was the boy who would have declared war on all the realms by now? If only his other son was here too ….

"Not only the Frost Giants, I'm afraid. But my son, these matters are for a later time. Tell me about Loki." As much as Odin wanted to, he couldn't tell Thor the whole truth. Not yet, at least. Not when he was so worried about Loki. The boy didn't need more on his plate.

Odin watched as every crease in Thor's face deepened and a fog rolled into his eyes.

"Loki … I fear for him. He seems lost and is not willing to talk. I've tried so hard and yet he won't have it." Odin nodded. He knew his son well. Loki was never one to give in easily, especially when he felt strongly about whatever he was doing. But Odin also knew that beneath those dark clouds of betrayal, hurt, and hate, was the son he raised with so much love and care.

"He has become so consumed in hate …." Now Thor wasn't talking to Odin. He was lost in his own thoughts. Odin was so used to seeing his sons joyful that this elongated despair made him very uneasy.

"And how are your friends from Midgard?" he changed the subject.

The fog slowly left Thor's eyes and a smile formed on his lips.

"They are faring well, though it has been a while since I have seen them." The smile gradually faltered.

"A trip to Midgard would do you well." Odin replied. Though before his son spoke, he knew what his response was going to be.

"I cannot leave Loki."

Odin sighed. "Give him some time, Thor."

Odin couldn't help but agree when Thor hung his head and shook it. Time was not enough to heal Loki's wounds.

* * *

Later that day Odin visited Heimdall. As always, the guardian stood facing Bifrost, his golden eyes stared into the vast space that only he could see.

"My king," he greeted Odin when he arrived. The guardian knew why he was here but he would not speak till he was commanded to do so.

"Heimdall," The king slightly inclined his head in a nod of greeting. "Have you seen anything?" As much as he tried to hide it, worry seeped through Odin's voice.

"The Frost Giants are calm. Their previous movements have stopped. It seems as if they lay in wait of something." Odin let out a breath. At least he could maintain his peace of mind for a while.

"And the others?"

"The Draugs have also stopped moving."

"Do you think that I should prepare the armies?" Usually Odin would have made this decision himself but this situation was too … perplexing. He couldn't possibly imagine what the Draugs wanted with the Frost Giants or visa versa, but whatever it was Odin was positive it wouldn't be pleasant.

"One can never be sure of the coming day."

A chuckled emitted from Odin's lips. As he turned to walk back, Heimdall spoke up.

"What about the book, my king?"

Odin didn't miss a beat. "It is safely hidden." A pause. "I don't see what they could do with it even if they did manage to secure it."

Heimdall didn't offer a response.

* * *

"Have you reconsidered, my brother?"

Loki didn't respond, instead he stared at a spot above Thor's head. He was feeling especially irritated today. His body was working against him in every way and all he wanted to do was pound his head against the wall. He was a god but he felt like a piece of crap. He didn't know that it was possible for one's eyeballs to hurt, but his did, right alongside every other part of his body. "God damn this cell," was his only thought at the moment.

"You look like you're in pain, brother." Loki would have laughed if his throat wasn't so parched. He had drank a gallon of water in the past few minutes but it hadn't helped at all.

_And his god damned head._ Loki's vision began to blur. What's wrong with me? He thought angrily.

"Loki?" Now Thor's voice had a hint of panic.

Something wet was on Loki's forehead. Painfully, Loki brought a hand to it and discovered sweat. This enraged Loki all the more. It wasn't even hot in the cell.

The last thing Loki heard before blacking out was the sound of a large explosion.

* * *

**As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Especially constructive criticism. **

******And concerning Odin...many people see him as harsh and cruel towards Loki and that he loves Thor more than Loki...and I can see why, but despite that fact, years of parenting and raising a kid won't just do down the drain like that, in my opinion. So whereas he's not a cuddly bear in this story, he is sympathetic towards Loki and he want's Loki back, unlike in some other fics **


	3. Strange Occurrences

Strange Occurrences

The Avengers and Pepper were sitting around the dining table chatting about everything from the effects of gamma radiation on plants and other life forms to which team was playing in the days basketball match, when it happened. A loud bang caused Steve, Bruce, Tony and Pepper to yelp in surprise, while Clint and Natasha jumped off their stools and pulled out their choice of weapon. A heavy silence fell over the group as they stood tense facing the staircase that led to the basement. An alarm sounded and Natasha's shoulders tensed even further.

That's when realization struck Tony. "Shit!" He exclaimed as he broke into a run and sprinted down the stairs. Seeing a flustered Tony run the stairs eased the tension. Clint lowered his bow and arrow.

"Which one of his inventions blew up this time?" he asked raising an eyebrow. Natasha shook her head and returned her guns to their holsters. Bruce smiled. He knew all too well about explosive inventions.

"Should someone go check?" Steve asked hesitantly.

"Probably," Pepper sighed. The _click-click_ of her heels could be heard all the way down the stairs.

* * *

For the first time ever, Tony was glad that he has installed a fire distinguisher machine in his lab…even though it had made a terrible mess. By the time he got to his lab everything thing was covered in a thick layer of white foam and the machine was still going strong. "Down, boy," Tony said to it while taking in the scene. His desk looked like it has snowed upon it. "Damn," Tony ran to it, being careful as to not slip on the white foam on the floor.

"Thank God," Tony sighed in relief. After wiping away the foam he discovered that all his papers and blueprints were safe…..they just had blotches of foam on them. Well, that was better than them getting incinerated in a fire. Though, the more Tony thought about it, nothing seemed to have been burned and other than the smell of smoke in the air there was no sign that a fire had occurred.

Through all of this, he was faintly aware of the _click-click _of Pepper's shoes getting closer.

"Tony?" His brain registered her voice.

"Tony, is everything oka…" the _click-click_ came to an abrupt stop, as did her sentence. There had been times when Tony had completely demolished his lab and compared to that this white wonderland was nothing, but it felt different. It felt…..sinister. "Oh gosh, Pepper. You need a vacation." She thought to herself. Since when was white foam sinister? Maybe it was the fact that there was so much of it. The floor was covered with at least an inch or two of white foam and Tony's footprints were clearly visible in it.

Tony spun on his heels to face her. Pepper's mouth was slightly agape.

"What…what happened?" She asked warily. Truth be told, she didn't want an answer.

The first thought that came to Tony's head was "What do you think happened?" but he bit back the remark. Instead he went with the truth.

"I don't know."

"Hmm….so maybe I should ask what blew up?" By now, Pepper was standing next to him. Tony cracked a smile and ran a hand through his hair.

"Trying to figure that…." And then it hit him. "The MC25!" He cried as he began to frantically search through the foam, papers, machine parts, and tools on his desk.

"The MC25?" Pepper questioned.

"My recent model for the magic container." He explained, his voice filled with panic.

Pepper had never seen him like this before…well, strike that. She had, but that was not the point. It still worried her.

"MC25. What a creative name. Lemme guess, 25 for your twenty fifth try? Why don't you just let that go. Even if you can harness Loki's magic, what will you be able to do with it? Other than use it once." A part of her told her that this was not the best time to be talking about this but Pepper tended to ignore that part of her a lot. And plus, she knew exactly why Tony wouldn't just let it go. Pepper wasn't sure if Tony was ignoring her comment or if he hadn't heard it.

"Okay, how about this? What does the container look like? She asked. The least she could do was help him look for it. Then she added, "Don't you think you should clear away this foam first?"

"It's a small cylinder, half an inch in diameter and an inch in height. The metal has an opening covered with glass and through the glass you can see a crystal."

"Okay," Pepper sighed once again. She wondered what she had been thinking when she had chosen to work as Tony Stark's secretary. She began to carefully maneuver around the room, joining her best friend in his search.

* * *

"Is this it?" Pepper asked a few minutes later.

Tony looked over to where her voice was coming from. He found her kneeling on the floor next to one of his cars (he couldn't tell which one, since it was also covered in foam). In her hand, Pepper was holding a cylinder quite like the one Tony had described. The only difference was that this one was emitting blue light. He didn't remember creating anything of the sort.

"Was that under my car?" He asked incredulously. If it was the container he was talking about, he was a thousand percent sure that he had left it on his desk.

"Yup," Pepper replied as she stood up. "You wouldn't have a towel down here anywhere, would you?" she pointed to her legs which were covered in foam. Tony laughed at her casual tone and she too cracked a smile.

"I should have paper towels somewhere.…" Tony opened one of the drawers in his desk, "Ah, here they are." He walked towards his friend and exchanged the paper towels for the cylinder.

"Thanks," he heard Pepper reply but didn't respond. He was too busy staring at the cylinder. It was the one Tony was fiddling with earlier. He was absolutely sure of it. But….then again it wasn't the cylinder that he had put off as a failed attempt. There was no hole in the metal where it had blown up just half an hour ago and the crystal... "Why is it blue?" Tony thought. "A late reaction?...it can't be. All the frequencies stopped after it blew up."

"Tony?" Pepper's voice brought him back to reality.

"Hmm?"

"What about all this…" Pepper helplessly gestured around the room.

"Oh yeah," Tony spoke as if he had forgotten. "Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir?" the computerized voice answered.

"Can you get something to clean up this mess?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hey Jarvis?" Tony added as an afterthought. "Was there even a fire?"

"No, sir." Tony could swear that the computer butler was laughing at him.

"I swear I am going to dismantle that machine." Tony growled. Somewhere behind him he heard mechanic movement. Pepper shook her head, laughing.

* * *

"Is he conscious yet?" The voice was unfamiliar to Loki and yet he felt as if he should know who was talking. He tried to open his eyes but they felt as if they were glued shut. Loki could not feel any of his limbs; his whole body had gone numb and he felt as if something was missing. He tried to fight the darkness ("that's a first," Loki thought bitterly) but to no avail. He was helpless. "Am I dead?" Loki immediately shooed the thought away. He was a god, what nonsense was he thinking? "Pah, a god," His thoughts wouldn't leave him alone. A slow pain was appearing in his head, a small remainder of the pain he suffered in the cell. The cell! Loki didn't know where he was now but he was absolutely sure he that he was no longer in the accursed cell. Slowly sense started coming back to him and along with a complete train of thought, the pain came too. At once his whole body felt as if someone was sticking needles into it. A cough built up in his chest but Loki pushed it down.

"No. He has not awoken and neither has he shown any signs of consciousness." This second voice sent shivers down Loki's spine. It was as cold as Jotunheim's wastelands and as evil as the Devil itself. The voice sounded as if it belonged to a creature from the bottom most pit of Hell. As much as he wanted to, Loki felt as if opening his eyes as this moment would be…inconvenient

"Why did you take this one? He's not even Odinson. Could you not get your hands…" a pause, "your hands, on the older one? Thor Odinson?"

Laughter bubbled in Loki's chest. He wasn't good enough for his kidnapper's either. And that's when he remembered; the explosion. Did something happen to Thor? Why did he care? Who were these people? What was going on? Despite his better judgment, Loki groggily opened his eyes. Upon seeing the sight in front of him, all the weariness in his bones disappeared. His eyes and body snapped to attention. He was in a cave in Jotunheim and was currently tied to a chair and seated in a corner. How very…comfortable. His situation reminded him of Midgardian super hero flicks. He was the damsel in distress… oh, the agony. The situation wouldn't have been all too terrifying, if it weren't for the skeleton.


	4. Pain

Pain

"It's finally come to this has it? The Frost Giants need to pair up with Death's soldiers?" Loki forced a lazy smirk on his face. The two monsters turned their attention towards him. In hindsight, Loki probably shouldn't have drawn attention to himself.

"Loki Laufeyson; I thought you were as good as dead. Guess I was wrong." The Frost Giant spoke. His red eyes seemed to be staring into Loki's spirit. Loki couldn't recognize him.

Next to him, a Draug stood…or floated... impassively. The Frost Giant, Loki could handle…but this….

When the Draug turned to face Loki, Loki had to look away. Its empty sockets held all of Loki's worst nightmares. To look into a Draug's eyes was to die from insanity. Its skeleton body was clothed in a ragged gray cloth, its hood pulled over the monster's skull, the standard uniform. Death's hands hung at its sides and where its hip should have been was a belt equipped with a sword sheath and God knows what else and then empty space.

"I never thought the Frost Giants would stoop so low. Your race, no matter how despicable, has always been admirable in their ways." Loki was looking anywhere but to the Giant's left.

A loud booming sound filled the cave and for a moment Loki thought they were being bombed. Then he chided himself for being so stupid. After a while he realized that the booming sound was the Giant's laughter.

"You speak as if you are not one of us. After all, you are Loki Lafeyson."

The comment went through one ear and out the other.

"Why am I here?" Loki's voice snapped. He was seething now.

"You are a peace offering." Now it was Loki's turn to laugh.

"A peace offering? I am the god of mischief and lies. What peace can I possibly bring?" His voice was mocking. The Frost Giant smiled.

"You may not be his true son but Odin has grown very fond of you," Loki scoffed, "and despite everything, to him you are his son. As a father he is surely to accept a trade. His son's life and sanity in exchange for the bo…"

The Draug's hand flew out and silenced the Frost Giant.

"You speak too much, Einar." The bone chilling voice had belonged to the Draug. What a surprise, Loki thought.

"Loki Lafeyson,"

"Stop calling me that!" Loki wanted to scream. Why did he have to be Loki Lafeyson? Or Loki Odinson? Why couldn't he just be Loki? "Snap out of it. You're in a life and death situation and your acting like a self-pitying fool."

"I hope that our eye hasn't weakened you too much. We need you in adequate health for our barter."

"I don't know why you think that Odin will negotiate with you for my safety, but I assure you, you are terribly mistak….WHAT?" Loki was hit hard with realization. Everything suddenly made so much more sense. A Draug's eye meant a slow death caused by deteriorating health. No wonder Loki had been, and still was, so weak and ill. He had found it strange that a simple enchanted cell could have affected him so but he had come to accept the fact. Suddenly the world made so much more sense. That also explained why his magic had almost disappeared. Suddenly Loki was struck cold. If it really was the Draug's fault and not the cell's….then there was a high probability of his magic never returning to its previous state.

Loki's head snapped towards the skeleton warrior and he was pretty sure that if the thing had an actual mouth, it would have been smiling.

"Why me? My brother would have been much more valuable to you."

"You can offer us what your brother could not. Your magic is much more valuable than your brother."

His magic. Rage bubbled in Loki's chest and he struggled against the ropes.

"It is no use. By struggling you will only hurt yourself." Einar spoke.

Loki didn't listen even though the creature was right. By now his breath was coming out heavy and the pain in his head intensified and expanded to his chest. When the pain became too much to bear, Loki came up with a new idea.

"You think of me as a link to Odin, but you are greatly mistaken," maybe Loki could talk his way out of this, "In fact, I am looking forward to his downfall. Release me and I'll help you achieve your goals."

Einar looked like he was considering it and for a moment Loki felt relieved. But he should have known better.

"You don't seem to understand young god. Whereas Odin's destruction is our ultimate goal, you are a vital stepping stone. Not just for the barter but because of this," The Draug floated closer to Loki and in turn Loki couldn't help but cringe. The monster stretched it bony hand out and touched a finger to Loki's chest. Suddenly his body convulsed and all heat left him. For a moment he was stone cold and blotches of black appeared in front of his eyes and breathing became hard. The torture seemed to last for hours but in reality it was only a minute. The Draug pushed against Loki's chest a little harder and Loki noticed that it had grown in size. By now he was wheezing. It would have been so easy to stop breathing at that moment. He would have too, but suddenly all the contents of his stomach emptied themselves onto the floor. Mixed in the waste was his blood. His neck was no longer able to support his head and his head fell back painfully on the back of the chair. He felt something warm and sticky crawl down his skull. All of Loki's limbs and muscles were shrieking in pain and his heart was threatening to blow. His body was drenched in sweat.

Through the midst of all of the pain, a part of Loki's brain was laughing. "Reminds you of your nine months of pregnancy and then child birth, doesn't it?" his brain said. Another part was mocking him. "Look at you. You're such a pathetic excuse for a god. Thor would have already beaten the crap out of everyone on Jotunheim." Yet another part supplied, "It's finally over. You won't have to live this accursed life anymore. No more…."

Loki screamed, more so to stop his own thoughts than in pain. His torturer laughed and pulled its hand back. After several minutes Loki's breathing pattern returned to normal and the black splotches in front of his eyes disappeared. But the cold would not go away.

"What…What did you…do?" he managed to get out.

"You don't know?" The Draug supplied as an answer. Behind him, Einar snickered.

Loki did know. The blasted thing took his magic, the small remainder of it that he had left. Of course that didn't mean that he had no more magic. It just meant that for the time being he was completely powerless and at the mercy of these creatures. With time his magic would come back, after all it was a part of him, but Loki didn't know how long that would take.

He finally understood what the monster had meant. With Thor, the only thing of use would have been his strength and Mjolnir. Neither of these could have benefited the Draugs. But his magic…that was a different story. Draug's fed on peoples fear to gain power; they also fed on magic.

"Pray tell, exactly when are you planning on contacting Odin?" Maybe Loki should have reconciled with Thor when he had had the chance.

Both Einar and the Draug laughed.

"In time. Till then, you should rest." Einar spoke. They were mocking him. The two creatures left the cave and for the first time in a very very long time, Loki was scared beyond belief.


	5. Avenger's Assemble

Chapter 5

"Father! Why do you not do anything?" Thor paced furiously in front of his father's throne. Odin did not respond; instead he rubbed his temples with his index fingers.

"FATHER!" Thor was in a fit of rage. They had taken his little brother and he wouldn't have it. It had been a horrifying scene. Thor had noticed that Loki didn't look to good and just as he fainted a powerful explosion caused the prison wall to be blown apart. Through it came dozens of swarming Draugs. Suddenly screams echoed through Thor's head and the worst moments of his life flashed before him. A blast of wind knocked him off his feet and before he knew it the monsters and his little brother were gone.

Odin did not respond. He knew why they had come and why they had taken Loki. They wanted the Book of Nine Realms but Odin could not give it to them. Even if it meant the safety of his son…Odin couldn't. Loki was a god, and a smart one at that. He could handle himself. Now if only Odin could convince himself of it. A loud bang drew Odin from his troubled thoughts. Thor had smashed Mjolnir against the floor, causing a mini earthquake and a crater in the throne room floor.

"Thor! You are being unreas…" Thor cut him off.

"No, Father. It is you who are being unreasonable. Just the other day were you not saying that you want Loki back? He may not be your son by blood but he is my blood brother. If not for yourself, or for him, then for me. Dispatch the armies to Jotunheim so that we can save him."

Odin winced.

"You do not understand. This time the enemy does not only outnumber us by the thousands, but they are something you have never seen before. Frost Giants are not the problem…it is the others that we need to worry about."

"That is why I say that Loki needs to be saved! Who knows what they're doing to him!"

"Thor! You're not the only one who cares about Loki. I want him safe but the cost for that is too great."

The cap that Thor was keeping on his rage, blew off.

"You have always put your duties before your children. Since childhood we've been a second thought. The cost is too great? This is Loki we're talking about! Nothing, nothing at all can come close to the cost of my brother. And if you refuse to help me then I shall go save Loki myself." Thor spun on his heels and with his shoulders set and fire in his eyes, proceeded to leave the room.

"You will fail. Heed my advice and stay. We'll figure something out."

Thor paused long enough to listen to his father's words. But as soon as Odin was done, he walked right out the room.

* * *

"You think this will work?" Bruce asked Tony who responded by shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't know." Jarvis had done a wonderful job getting rid of the mess and now the lab looked as good as new and now all the Avengers and Pepper were in the lab watching with skeptical eyes. Tony had finally figured out where he had gone wrong with the MC series. The crystals had needed time fully charge, kind of like bread fermenting. Tony would always discard his inventions after a second of nothing happening. The magic needed time to kick in. After figuring this out Tony had made duplicates and was now attaching one of the crystals to his suit. He was experimenting to see if he could use magic as Iron Man…that would be pretty cool. The thought brought a goofy smile to his face. But of course there was always the chance that this could fail.

After safely securing the container in his suit and wearing it, Tony went and stood in front of the large target that he had had drawn on one of the lab walls. If everything went well, Tony would have a large gaping hole in the wall, if not….well, Tony would worry about that later.

Just as Tony was getting ready to fire a loud noise distracted him. The sound resembled something cracking and breaking, and all too soon, a pile of rubble that used to be his towers's roof and floor accumulated in front of him. Standing atop the rubble, in full rage mode, was none other than Thor.

"You know Thor, I don't know how they do it in Asgard, but on Earth we have doors." He said weakly. The others were watching the scene with growing worry. Thor seemed really agitated. "Don't tell me there's another alien invasion," Tony joked.

Thor gravely shook his head. "My friends," he started. "Asgard has been invaded by a terrible enemy. They have taken Loki hostage and my father refuses to do anything about it."

"I wouldn't blame him," Tony muttered under his breath. He still got pissed off every time he thought about his last encounter with Loki.

"Thor…" Steve began. They all knew how touchy Thor could get on this topic.

"Listen, Thor. If you came here to get our help in rescuing Loki, I am sorry. We all have better things to do." Tony said for Steve. Clint nodded in agreement.

Thor turned to face Tony, his face hard.

"Man of Iron," he began, "You should know what it is like to be taken hostage and tortured, all alone. You should know betrayal and hurt and agony. You have crossed through the flames that now consume Loki. I agree that Loki has made some terrible decisions but he is my younger brother."

All eyes were on Tony. Without missing a beat Tony replied, "No offense, but if he's your younger brother, you go save him. I am not just speaking for myself, Thor. Everyone in this room agrees with me. And heck, even if we were all stupid enough to say yes, Fury would never let us go."

Pepper's face told Tony that he was pushing it. Hey, it wasn't his fault Thor had such an insufferable younger brother. And if he was in trouble well, boo-hoo.

In a moment thunder started cracking in the distance but then it faded and Thor sighed. Still facing Tony he dropped to his knees.

Tony was proud to say that puppy dog faces didn't work on him, but the face that Thor was giving him made him very uneasy and guilty. It wasn't everyday a god went on their knees to beg and plead with him.

"My friends, please. After he is safe, you can jail him again, but please. You do not know of the Draugs… they are far worse than anything you have ever seen."

Tony really doubted that. He saw the looks of unease on Steve and Pepper's face and sighed. Big hearted fools.

"How bad can they be?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow.

"To look into their eyes is to die from insanity. Their mere presence makes one relive their worst nightmares. They drain the energy from their enemies for power and come from the deepest pit of Hell. They are the Devil's soldiers and yet serve no one." Thor's eyes were clouded as if he was seeing something that the rest weren't.

"So, like real life dementors?" Tony asked.

In the background Pepper shook her head and Thor looked up at him. "What is a dementor?"

Tony sighed and looked to the others for help.

"Look Thor, I am sorry for your brother, but based on your description of these…Draugs, it seems like there's really nothing we can do." Steve, always the sensible one.

"You can. You can come with me to Jotunheim and save him."

"Okay, say that we agree, how are we even supposed to get there, Thor? Have you thought about that?" Tony asked.

The only response Thor offered was a bittersweet smile.

"My friends, have you considered the possibility that maybe somehow Loki will convince the Frost Giants and Draugs to release him and let him help them? If he does that and succeeds, then my friends, no power will be great enough to save this world from destruction."

"Sly bastard," Tony muttered as he watched Steve's eyes widen. Bruce too, began pursuing his lips in thought, while Clint furrowed his brow. Natasha was just standing there with an unreadable look. Thor might look like a big blundering fool, but at the moment he was anything but.

"I shall forever be in your debt,"

"Ahahaha, nice try Thor."

"Tony, I think he has a point." Steve interjected.

"I agree with Steve." That was Bruce.

"I am still not over the last alien invasion." That was Natasha.

"Thor said we could jail him again." Steve again.

"Natasha's right. I say that we go, not for Loki but for our own sanity." And with that all hope Tony had flew out the window. He had expected Clint to stay on his side, but things never worked out the way he planned, did they? Plus, the reproachful look he was getting from Pepper was putting him on edge.

"Fine. I guess I'll try the new audition to my suit on some alien guts."

"Draugs don't have guts." Thor said as he got up.

Tony looked at the god with a blank expression. He blinked a few times before deciding that it wasn't worth it.

"Whatever. Just saying, if Fury finds out, we're dead."

"Thank you my friends." Thor beamed, his eyes near teary.

"Whoa, princess! Save the tears for the reunion." Clint chuckled but quickly concealed it with a cough. All the others just shook their heads while Thor stared at Tony with a strange expression.

"What?" Tony replied to the looks.

* * *

"So, we're all suited up and ready to go. How are we supposed to this…Jotunheim? And don't we need space suits if we're going to space?"

Everyone ignored Tony's ranting. They were all on Stark Tower's roof top waiting.

"My friends, please gather." All the Avengers gathered around Thor.

"Heimdall!" Thor screamed into the sky. "If you can hear me, we're ready."

"Oh, like that's going to be effect…" Tony was interrupted by a flash of blue light that whisked him off his feet.

* * *

"A warning next time, please," Tony breathed as he got to his feet. Out of all of them only Thor, Clint, and Natasha had been able to land on their feet.

Thor laughed and clapped him on the back, once again knocking the wind out of Tony.

"Ahahaha…" Tony mockingly laughed with the god, but his heart wasn't really into it. He was too busy taking in his surroundings, just like the others. A barren frozen wasteland stretched out in front of him. Maybe it was just Tony, but it looked like everything was tinted gray and blue.

"So…um…Jotunheim….this is where Loki's from? No wonder he has problems." Tony said uneasily. He didn't like the feeling of the place. It felt as if everything, the air, the ground, the rocks, was holding its breath.

"I get a bad feeling about this place," Steve too, looked uneasy.

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Steve."

Steve threw Tony a glare.

"So are we just waiting for monsters to come running at us?" Tony looked around.

"Yes." Thor replied.

Definitely not the answer Tony was expecting.

"Seriously?" Clint asked.

"How about this, Thor, you wait to get pulverized by monsters and I'll run a scan for Loki."

"Jarvis, can you read me?" Tony spoke into his mask.

"Barely, sir."

"Barely is fine. I need you to run a scan for Loki. Use the samples from the staff. You can find him by his magic."

"Will do, sir."

"Now what?" Bruce asked. Out of everyone he looked the most uncomfortable, with all good reason of course.

"Now we wait for five seconds." Tony replied.

"5 miles due northwest in a cave at an elevation of two hundred twenty five feet, coordinates: 36 north, 54 west." Jarvis reported back right on time.

"Wonderful, Jarvis. Leave the map on the screen for me." He spoke back to his computer. To his comrades he said, "Got his location. It's high up. I'll lead." He started the rockets on his suit, grabbed onto Clint's collar ("Don't let go, Jack" "Wouldn't imagine it,") and went up to the specified elevation. "You guys ready?" The whole situation seemed a little surreal to him. Bruce, who was now in Hulk form, nodded as he grabbed Natasha and Steve, both of whom were a little startled. Thor also nodded, a look of gratitude in his eyes. "Jarvis, keep an eye out on the perimeter," and with that off he and the rest of the Avengers went.


	6. Nightmares and Alcohol

Nightmares and Alcohol

"Jarvis, is Loki alone?" Tony asked as the cave came into view. He stopped his rockets for a moment and levitated in the air a few yards away from the opening. Seeing Tony stop, the others followed his lead.

"I know you said not to let go, Rose, but you're really kinda pushing it." Clint spoke. Since Tony was holding him by his collar, at the moment Hawkeye was dangling in midair. Tony smiled, his face hidden by his mask, but didn't respond.

"Yes sir, but there are high energy readings from surrounding areas."

"Pull up a visual," In the left hand corner of his mask a blue map appeared. Along the different lines of latitude and longitude, were little red dots, some of them radiating a large spectrum on energy and others that had such little energy spectrums that Tony had to squint to see them. Tony wouldn't have worried it if were just a few dots, but judging by the map thousands and thousands of creepy crawly aliens were lying in wait for them. "Ambush," Tony whispered. And at that very moment a battle screech pierced the silent night, was it night? Tony couldn't tell, sky. He could hear the ground rumble and he barely had enough time to shout, "Ambush!"

In a few shorts seconds all the Avengers were in battle positions as hordes of blue skinny giants ran their way.

"Clint, secure the perimeter." Tony started his rockets again and after dropping Clint off on a high cliff so that he could do his thing, Tony quickly assessed the situation. On the ground the Avenger's seemed to be doing a great job. Bruce was knocking out ten, twenty giants at a time. He would grab one by the leg, roll it into a ball and then have fun playing bowling. Not to mention the fact that as tall as the giants were, the Hulk was taller, stronger, and faster. When one of his arms did get caught in ice ("So their power is shooting ice, huh?...Oh, no wonder they're called Frost Giants. Perfect face palm moment," Tony thought) he easily ripped his hand out. Natasha and Steve were doing a double combo, still effective, but it was clear that they were having some difficulty. But then, of course since Natasha was there, all of Clint's arrows were targeted to that spot and dozens of Frost Giants would go flying into the sky where Natasha would shoot at them and Steve would be ready to knock their brains out with his shield while they rocketed to the ground. Tony didn't even have to look for Thor. Thunder was rumbling in the skies and dozens of Frost Giants lay fried on the ground. Others were getting their jaws dislocated by Mjolnir. For a while Tony felt as if he wasn't needed, but then he heard Thor's shout.

"Man of Iron, my brother!"

"Oh yeah." Tony had completely forgotten about Loki in the few short minutes. He took a quick glance at the map which showed incoming back up for the giants and decided that he should hurry up.

"There are thousands more coming," Tony warned before he shot towards the cave opening. He wasn't sure if anyone heard him.

* * *

"Damn," that was all Tony was capable of saying when he saw Loki. He stood there for a few minutes, unsure what to do and then, "Damn." His mind was stuck on that one word. Loki was slumped in a chair in a corner of the cave. His cloak was not its usual green but a weird shade of black and Tony had a lingering suspicion as to why. Loki could never have been described as having rosy cheeks and a fair complexion, but right now the man was beyond pale and his face badly bruised and lips cut. His eyes were shut and his mouth pulled into a weird grimace that seemed stuck in between fear and pain. The floor around him was red and…had he puked? It seemed as if all his guts were lying on the floor around him. Tony almost felt pity for him, _almost_. Memories of feeling as if he were drowning and torture came back to him. But that was different…Loki deserved this. He was a monster….but then Tony had been too, back in the day.

"Is he alive?" Tony asked out loud to get away from his thoughts.

"Yes sir. Energy readings around him are very low but they're there." He jumped in his suit when Jarvis replied; it had really been a rhetorical question. Tony stood there for another moment taking in the sight and engraving it into his brain. He could use this against Loki at another time. "Sir, as much as you are enjoying this sight, your friends are in danger of collapsing." Tony had completely forgotten about that. "Okay, Jarvis." He said even though he really didn't need to. Tony sprinted to the chair and began undoing the ropes.

"Who the hell tied these?" He asked. The ropes were triple knotted. After about five minutes, Tony was able to untie the ropes around Loki's legs. "Why can't I just incinerate the ropes?"

"Because that would hurt Loki,"

"Thank you, Jarvis." Tony got up from his knees and began to undo the ropes tying Loki's hands when a strong gust of wind knocked him off his feet. A soft ringing sound began in his ears and suddenly he was chilled to the bone. "Don't tell me…" Tony got on his feet and whirled around. All this while he had a hand firmly planted onto the ropes around Loki's hands; he was slowly tugging them apart.

Tony's first impression was that it didn't look like a dementor. But seeing as the ringing sound, which was really screaming, got louder in Tony's head as the Draug came into view, it was exactly like one. Images of him being held captive and tortured returned to him and so did images of Obadiah and Ivan…and this time they were the one's winning.

"Tony Stark," The thing spoke. Tony didn't want to know why of how it knew his name.

The thing's eyes…well eye sockets, followed Tony's hands down to the ropes. Tony had to force himself to look away. He remembered Thor's words, "To look into their eyes is to die from insanity."

"Skeleton," Tony addressed the thing. He suspected that if the Draug had a mouth he would have smiled…menacingly. Though that was not what worried right now. What worried Tony was that he would faint due to the screaming.

"The world works in interesting ways, does it not, Tony Stark?"

"Please, call me Tony." Behind his mask Tony's eyes were going wild, trying to find an escape route that was not the cave opening.

"Has Odin sent you?"

"No,"

"Then why would you be rescuing an enemy?"

"Because I didn't want to get clobbered by his brother's hammer."

A rumbling sound sounded and Tony's first thought was "earthquake," but then he realized that the thing was laughing. It started to float closer to Tony and the screaming only got louder. Slowly Tony's knees turned to jelly, but he kept himself standing upright. By now the knuckles on his hand that was grasping the rope, were popping out and ghostly white.

"Sir, right now would be a wonderful time to try out the MC blaster."

Tony had never been so glad to hear Jarvis' voice. Raising his arm up, he held his palm towards the Draug. He felt the muscles in his arm contract as a massive wave of energy ran through the suit. The blast came out in an explosion of blue light that sent Tony flying into the cave wall. Since he was holding onto the ropes so tightly, the chair and Loki went flying with him. Even when he was unconscious the guy was a pain in the ass…literally, seeing that the chair had hit Tony in his hip when he hit the wall.

* * *

Clint was the first one to see it. A massive blue light hurled itself out of the cave. He had enough time to scream "duck!" before he took cover behind a huge rock formation.

* * *

Steve heard Clint's scream and looked up. A massive blue light was coming at them fast. He quickly jammed his shield into one last Frost Giant, grabbed Natasha, and made a run for it. On his way he saw the Hulk using one of the Frost Giants as a bat and as much as he would have liked to stick around and watch the Hulk hit a home run, he yelled, "HULK! RUN!"

* * *

After hearing his name, The Hulk lazily moved his head in the direction from which Steve's voice was coming from. He saw the massive energy force and dropped his bat. He would resume his game later, for now he needed to run for cover.

* * *

Thor ignored all the cries. He would fight till the last minute, if he had to. After knocking a few more giants to the ground, he braced himself, Mjolnir held firmly in his hands.

* * *

"Ugh…"

Pepper's head shot up. She saw Tony move his head from side to side and her heart started beating faster. "Oh gosh…" She said, her voice wavering. She had been sitting next to Tony's bedside for three days straight, waiting for him to wake up. She had held back all tears but at the moment she thought she would burst.

Tony groaned some more and Pepper was about to explode. She would have screamed if she hadn't seen him blinking at that moment.

* * *

Tony's head hurt and so did the rest of his body. He was having a lot of trouble opening his eyes and moving his head was painful.

"Bastard," He heard a feminine voice that his mind immediately registered as "Pepper."

"It's nice to see you too," Tony spoke, his voice coming out hoarse.

"Oh gosh, TONY!" Pepper half sighed and half yelled. She immediately embraced him.

"Ah, ah, ah, Pepper…" As much as Tony was enjoying it, his neck hurt really badly.

"Oh, oh, of course." Pepper sat back down on her seat and cleared her throat. "It's good to see you awake." She said.

"How long have I been out?"

"About three days."

"What happened? Where's the rest of the gang? I expected everyone to be surrounding my sick bed with sad faces." Tony remembered pieces and pieces of what happened in Jotunheim, but he had no recollection of how he had passed out.

Pepper smiled a little. "Steve, Clint, and Natasha stayed here for a day but then they went back to their own houses and Thor is in one of the guest rooms with Loki and Bruce."

That was enough to wake Tony up completely.

"Loki's in one of my guest rooms?" He asked incredulously. Pepper's smile turned into a frown.

"Tony," she said in a way to calm him down. "Loki's been in a comatose state for quite a while now. That's why Bruce is with him."

"So?" Tony asked. He knew he was acting like a little kid but he couldn't stand the fact of Loki being in one of his lavish guest rooms. His best friend stared at him with narrow eyes.

"Loki was already in pretty bad shape and it was your MC blaster that caused his comatose state."

That zipped Tony up good.

"When you're feeling better, you might want to go visit Thor. He hasn't left the room for even a second."

"Wait up; you want me to visit Thor? What if he rips my head off?"

"He won't. You had to use the blaster. It incinerated all the Frost Giants and Jarvis told me about the…Draug. You had to save yourself. Thor doesn't blame you. You did save his brother after all." That's when Tony remembered his hip. Painfully he brought a hand to his right hip and felt the swelled up skin.

"He bruised my hip," he pouted. Pepper looked at him with amused eyes.

"He was unconscious, Tony. Whatever caused your hip to inflate like a balloon was your own fault."

"See, that's what I am saying. He's a bastard even when he's unconscious." Pepper shook her head.

"Whatever, Tony; Just visit Thor when you feel better. Maybe tell him that you'll stay with Loki while he goes and freshens up or something."

"I am not going to keep watch on him. Don't you remember what he did? He stole one of my suits and then went rampaging through Los Angeles. Remember all the damage control we had to do?"

Pepper was not moved. "I remember. What you might not remember is that he's in a coma because of you."

"Are you trying to guilt me?"

"I am trying to make you see that despite everything he's done, he's," Pepper didn't finish her sentence. Instead she sighed and looked at Tony with sad eyes.

"How do you think he feels? I mean, as much as the guy pissed me off at first, he reminds me off you. His entire family was like Obadiah to you. And now with all this…"

"He and I are nothing a like."

Pepper shrugged her shoulders. She could see the gears behind Tony's eyes spin. The seed was planted. She didn't want Tony and Loki becoming friends or anything of that nature. She just wanted Tony to see the world through a different set of eyes. A green set of eyes. She truly felt that Tony and Loki were alike and that maybe, just maybe, Loki would retrace his steps and see sense. That would make life easier for a whole lot of people. And just to make sure that once Tony was better he would go visit Thor, Pepper added, "And now that Loki's here, maybe you can experiment some more with your MC series." Pepper watched as a sparkle formed in Tony's eyes.

"I'll think about it." He said. Pepper silently congratulated herself.

"Hey, Pepper?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened to my suit?"

Pepper pursed her lips. "Well, I'd say that you're lucky to have it in one piece. It's in your lab…but it's in pretty bad shape."

"Awesome." Tony grumbled. She smiled. After a while she asked "Do you need anything?"

"A dozen pain killers, hot coffee, and Italian sounds nice." Pepper laughed as she left the room. "Give me five minutes."

* * *

Tony wished he could have said that he slept peacefully that night. Instead his sleep was haunted with screams, blood, Obadiah, Ivan, and his time as a war hostage. And in the middle of all that was a broken god.

* * *

"How's he coming along?" Bruce turned around from where he was kneeling at Loki's bedside and saw Tony. He was leaning against the door frame and looked considerable better than when they had found him. Thor too was looking at Tony.

"He's...surviving. He's in a first stage of coma but it's not anything too serious. He just needs a kick start. Coma's not even the proper term for it."

Tony's eyes grew wide.

"No, you cannot experiment on him." Pepper said, coming up from behind him. She had brought all of them coffee.

"Aw, come on! Bruce said he just needs a kick start." Tony whined as he took a cup of coffee from the tray that Pepper was holding.

Bruce turned one side of his mouth up in a smile but did not say anything.

"So, Thor. You look like you've been attacked by a group of cats." And truly Thor did. His hair resembled a rat's nest and his face was weary. Scratches were visible all over his face and arms. Bags ran deep under his eyes.

"That's because when he went up to the cave to retrieve you, some of the energy from the blast was still present. So when Thor ran in, the energy propelled him back." Bruce answered Tony.

"Really?" Tony asked in surprise.

"Yup," Bruce nodded. "The blast incinerated all the giants in a radius of five miles."

Tony widened his eyes, amazed. For a while everyone watched Bruce run checkups on Loki.

"I think that's all I could do for today, Thor. All we can do now is wait." Bruce said after he was finished. The god nodded solemnly.

"Thanks for the coffee. Pepper. I'll see you all soon." Bruce bid his comrades farewell.

A moment of silence followed.

"Thor, why don't you go freshen up. Tony will watch Loki." Pepper stated, breaking the heavy silence.

"Wha..." Tony began but then stopped when Pepper glared at him. Thor was looking at him with pleading eyes. Tony sighed.

"Fine, I'll look after the bas…" Tony paused. "I'll look over Loki." He reworded his sentence. A smile began to form on Thor's lips.

"I will forever be grateful, my friend."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony responded, jokingly. Truth be told, he hated seeing the big guy all depressed and worried. In the time they had all spent together, everyone had rubbed off on him... even stick in the mud, Steve.

Thor got up, pulled Tony into an embrace which nearly crushed him, thanked him once more and then walked out of the room. Pepper smiled at him and also walked out of the room.

"So…what do I do?" Tony asked the empty air around him. Since there was nothing he could do other than stare at Loki's face, that's what he decided to do. As in the cave, Loki's eyes were pulled tightly shut and the expression on his face was caught between fear and pain. For the first time ever Tony wondered what exactly had driven Loki off the edge, or had he always been so unhinged. He knew the back story of course; lied to all his life, looked down upon, lived in the shadow of an older brother, used as a pawn. Betrayal, hurt, agony, pain, all the feelings that were familiar to Tony. Yet despite this, Tony refused to acknowledge any sympathy for the man lying in front of him. Even though he was lied to, he had a family. He had Thor, who loved him more than anything else. He let one thing ruin everything; he let one thing drive him off the edge towards insanity and hate. One thing that shouldn't have mattered one bit compared to all the love he had received from Thor, Odin, and his mother. Tony knew that people made bad decisions and Loki had made a terrible one, but no matter what, Tony felt as if nothing, nothing at all, could justify Loki's behavior. Pepper was wrong. They had nothing in common. Sure they both had walked down the same road, but when they came upon that fork in the road, they both had gone different ways. And to Tony, that was all that mattered.

"Ugh," He groaned as he put his coffee on the side. His brain was starting to ache again. "I need a beer…" He said to the air. And that's when Tony was struck with a brilliant idea.

* * *

Loki had been experiencing the same nightmare over and over and over again. What once started as a wonderful childhood memory was now a horror that plagued his every thought. One day, when he and Thor were still little kids, just past the age 10, they were playing hide-and-go-seek in a rose patch in the royal gardens. It was Loki's turn to hide and after searching far and wide, he had found the perfect place. In the middle of two rose bushes was a little gap, big enough for him to crawl into. At the moment he hadn't known that roses came with thorns. He never could have imagined that something so beautiful could have been so painful. So in his ignorance, he crawled into the opening. After a while something started to prick him and when he tried turning, a sharp pain flew up his arm. Loki began to worry. He could feel blood running down his arm and finally he could see the thorns. Tears started welling in his eyes because he couldn't get out. Hours passed and Thor did not come. At first Loki thought that once Thor couldn't find him he gave up his search, but then Loki remembered that had hidden at the very end of the extensive rose patch. He clung onto the hope that Thor would come looking for him, as he always did.

Another hour passed and just as Loki was about to give up all hope he heard his brother's voice. "Loki!" He was shouting. Loki wanted to shout "I am here," but he was afraid if he opened his mouth, the tears welling in his eyes would spill. Loki was absolutely determined not to cry. After all, Thor never cried. He waited painfully a few more moments, and then finally he could see Thor. As he opened his mouth, the word "brother," got caught in his throat, and he coughed.

"Loki!" Suddenly his brother was before him, tearing apart the roses with his bare hands. After Loki was out, tiny pricks and blood covering his arms and in his cloths, Thor embraced him.

"Brother, I was so worried about you." Loki could do nothing but hold Thor tightly. From that day on Loki had trouble seeing the beauty in things, but he knew that he could count on Thor, even if he was jealous of him at times, and even if people liked him more.

The Draug had taken that memory and turned it into something vicious. In his nightmares the rose bushes would come alive and painfully jab him with their thorns. What made it worse was that Loki would physically feel the pain when he awoke. The roses would mock him, too. Other times Thor wouldn't come and Loki would bleed to death. Another time instead of Thor, a Draug would appear and Loki would mistakenly look into its eyes and then would die screaming. One other time Thor came but instead of saving Loki, he laughed at him.

Now Loki was having that same dream, but it was different. When his ten year old self came upon that opening he found a goblet placed in between the bushes. At first Loki just blankly stared at it but then his curiosity got the better of him. Picking up the goblet, Loki brought it to his lips. As soon as the liquid entered his mouth he tried to spit it out. It tasted disgusting. But some force was forcing the goblet to his lips and at the end when it was all done, Loki entered a coughing fit.

* * *

"Success!" Tony exclaimed as Loki began to cough and sputter. Even though Pepper had told him not to experiment on Loki, he still had. Tony had mixed a little bit of every alcoholic beverage (which was a lot of alcohol) he could find in his mansion into one glass. He had emptied that glass into Loki's stomach. He had expected Loki to wake up, what he had not expect was Loki to shoot out of bed once he did wake up. In the end, the two of them head bumped and Tony was knocked off his feet.

He watched from his position on the floor as Loki blinked once, and then twice. Turning his head (did he wince?) Loki's eyes narrowed when he saw Tony.

"Stark," He growled.

"Good to see you too, sleeping beauty." Tony replied as he rubbed his forehead.


	7. Waking up and it's aftermath

**A/N: **** You people are fabulous! You're reviews make me smile from ear to ear.**

**And also, the beginning paragraph is me backtracking to the last paragraph from Chapter 6, but from Loki's point of view.**

**I hope that made sense.**

* * *

Chapter 7

A burning sense in his throat made it hard for Loki to breathe. Beginning to choke, he shot out of bed; his head banging against some terribly hard surface. The pain only added to Loki's aching body. It seemed that the only thing that he had been feeling for the past while was pain. He had heard a loud _tumph,_ but at that moment that was not what was worrying him. He was no longer in the cave. Instead he was in some sort of room. The word "bedroom" registered in his mind as he began to feel the sponginess of the mattress. But then, whose bedroom? And more importantly how'd he get out of the cave? The last thing he remembered was … nothing. For a moment Loki's breath caught, and then the moment passed. He slowly turned his head and winced as pain shot up his neck.

Instinctively, Loki's eyes narrowed and he growled.

"Stark."

The buffoon was splattered across the floor. Loki put two and two together and realized that Stark had been the terribly hard surface. It made sense too; Loki had always thought Stark thick-headed.

"Good to see you too, sleeping beauty." The mortal replied as he rubbed his forehead. Loki could not help but notice that his arms were a little bruised and there was a huge bump near his hip. Were the Avengers responsible for his rescue? Loki didn't want to think about it. He was worried that he would puke again.

"Why am I here?" Loki tried to sound menacing but his voice came out as a croak. For a moment the mortal stared at him and then a grin broke out on his face.

"Why are you here, you ask. You're here 'cuz the Avengers' saved your sorry ass."

Rage contorted on Loki's face. He would have blasted Stark out of the room with his magic if he weren't so weak.

Something began to dawn on Loki, something that had to do with his magic. He turned away from Stark and thought hard. Bits and pieces began coming back and suddenly Loki was filled with dread. His magic … it was gone; at least for a while. The Draugs had taken it away somehow. Now, he was no better than Stark, who was now sitting cross legged on the floor and staring at him with calculating eyes. An inescapable cold took a hold of him and he felt his body collapse.

He didn't try to resist as he fell back into the soft mattress. Under normal circumstances he would have dealt with the fact that he was in Stark Tower in one of Tony Stark's rooms by storming out, no matter how weak he was.

"Um…are you having a lapse of depression or something? If you're going to have severe mood swings, I think you should tell someone. Maybe you need to see a therapist. I mean … you were already off your rocker and, well, I can't say that your-" Loki couldn't take it anymore. Propping himself up painfully on his elbow he struggled to get to his feet. He would not stay in the presence of this mortal any longer. He didn't care that he was weak and had lost all his magic, and the fact that he was still recovering didn't mean anything to him. He would not degrade himself by taking refuge in Stark's house.

Tony was watching with dark eyes, his elbows resting on his legs and his chin on his hands.

Loki managed to plant his feet on the ground. The next part was trickier: he had to hoist himself up. Loki didn't know how but after a few minutes of struggling with his own limbs he was in a sitting position. The last step was fairly easy. He planted both his palms onto the bed and thrust his body up by placing pressure on his arms and hands.

Tony had not moved a muscle.

Now that Loki was on his feet, he felt reassured. Maybe he wasn't as weak as he thought. Maybe his body was just tired from lying down and being tied to a chair. Yes, that was probably it. Ignoring the black splotches that were forming themselves in front of his eyes, he took a step forward. He was a little shaky on his feet as of now, but Loki was absolutely positive that after another step or two, he would be fine. In his mind he was imagining himself strutting past Stark, who was watching his every move.

Let's just say that plan failed. Miserably.

As Loki took another step, his head spun and he lost all sense of balance. He fell to the floor, a heap of skin and bones complete with flailing arms.

Tony's only remark was "Do you have a fetish for harming yourself?"

Thor chose that moment to come into the room.

"How is he coming along, Ton…" He stopped mid-sentence when he saw his brother struggling to get up.

"Loki!" He cried as he quickly walked over to his brother. With the greatest delicacy, he grabbed his brother's arm and placed it around his shoulder. Wrapping one of his own arms around Loki's waist, he hoisted him up. The look on Loki's face was one of repulsiveness. Tony on the other hand, was amazed that someone like Thor could display such gentleness. Pepper also waltzed in at that moment.

"It's been a while, do you need anythin …" She too eyed Loki for a split second before turning to glare at Tony.

"What?" Tony drawled, stretching out the "a." "If you must know, he was on the floor due to his own stubbornness. I am actually responsible for waking him up."

"I told you not to experiment on him, Tony!" Pepper said with an exasperated sigh.

Thor was too busy making sure that Loki was safe. After placing him back on the bed, he stared at his brother intently. Loki returned the glance for a few minutes before turning away.

In order to break the silence, Loki spoke.

"Was it you who fed me that foul liquid?" He was staring out of a window. At first Tony did not know that Loki had addressed him. When he did realize, he was quite shocked. Pepper was looking at him in a way that said "what foul liquid?"

"Uh..yeah." Tony scratched his neck, quite uneasy with the tension in the air. "I just took whatever alcoholic drink I could get my hand on and mixed it with others …" he let his sentence fade.

"And that worked?" Pepper asked incredulously. A coma wasn't exactly something you could wake up from by drinking a glass of different alcoholic beverages…but then again this was Tony we were talking about. Every room in the Stark Mansion was equipped with a fridge that held only alcohol. Pepper shook her head.

"Apparently," Tony responded.

Another moment of silence. "Uh, Pepper ... what happened to all those meetings of mine?"

"Rescheduled."

"For when?"

"The Board of Direc…"

"Pepper,"

"Yes?"

"How about we take this to my office? I should call Bruce, too. Tell him he-who-must-not-be-named is awake." He looked at Thor from the corner of his eye for approval, which he found in the light nod of the god's head.

Pepper looked at Tony for a while before she realized what he was doing.

"Oh yeah, of course. While we're at that, I have some papers you need to sign."

Tony hoisted himself off the floor and dusted off his jeans.

"Lead the way, m'lady." He said.

The two filed out the room, Tony closing the door behind him, leaving the two brother's alone.

"Loki, we need to talk."


	8. Bound by Love not Blood

Bound by Love not Blood

Loki watched as Stark and Potts walked out of the room. The soft "click" of the door that sounded when it shut took away any hope Loki had of escape … not that he had had any chance. It was just going to be him and Thor now. Loki internally sighed and slumped his shoulders. How wonderful. Not yet an hour awake and going to be getting a lecture. His life was wonderful, wasn't it? Loki awaited the dreaded words.

"Loki, we need to converse." Words that would lead to his damnation.

Being that he was exhausted, in pain, and still Loki at heart, he didn't respond.

"I am glad that you have awoken safe and sound."

Safe and sound? If only Thor knew. Loki was never safe and sound. The monsters in his head always made sure of it.

"Though, you do not yet look like you have fully recovered."

That's because he hadn't.

"Antony, I am forever in his debt, said that he would call Banner. He's been taking care of you while you've been out."

"Out?" Loki croaked. He hadn't meant to say it out loud.

Thor gravely nodded. "For three days. The explosion caused by Tony's suit knocked both him and you, unconscious."

Confusion must have been written in Loki's face for Thor launched into a back-story about how he and the Avengers had saved Loki.

Bile rose in Loki's throat. Stark's earlier words floated through his mind, "You're here 'cuz the Avengers' saved your sorry ass."

"I did not need saving. Why did you not leave me to rot? Why risk your life?" frustration seeped through his words. He knew the word were in vain, though. Any attempt to hurt Thor, verbally, would be lost on him. Even before the other god said anything, Loki knew his response.

"Because you are my brother, Loki." The way Thor said it, so tenderly, so lovingly, sent a shiver down Loki's spine. He did not need Thor's pity. Something snapped inside him.

"I am not your brother!" He screamed, ripping his throat open. All pain was forgotten. The coldness in his chest was more than he could handle. It scared him and he wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there forever. Loki hated what he had become; a scared and pitiful child.

He watched as emotions flew through Thor's eyes. The thunder god's shoulders tensed and his breath came out a little heavier.

"You may not consider me your brother, but I know that mine sits before me."

"You buffoon! Why do you not understand? I hate you. You are the bane of my existence! My whole life you have made me feel worthless. You were always the one most loved, while I sat in the shadows _forgotten._ Brother? What brother do you speak of? You think of me as a brother? When have you ever bothered to look my way? For you it's always been about Thor," Loki was on a roll now. As before in the cell, all the wrong emotions mixed together and came spilling out. "THE GREAT ALMIGHTY _THOR!_" If he hadn't been screaming before, he was now. "Compared to that, what am I? Loki Lafeyson, an orphan Frost Giant, taken in by Odin and used as a god forsaken PAWN." He laughed a little, "See, you even got the better title." His voice was sardonic.

"Do you not see that I am repenting?" Thor yelled back, slamming a fist onto the night stand. Loki was a little taken back; he had never before gotten such a strong reaction from Thor.

"I know I have done you wrong, brother. I know that you feel hurt and betrayed and used. I know. I am trying to fix all my mistakes." Thor's eyes pleaded with Loki, but a whole new fit of rage had seized him.

"You know?" Loki's eyes were wet, but who gave a damn? "You know?" He asked again, tilting his head and ignoring the pang of pain that went up his neck. "YOU DON"T KNOW! How could you possibly know?" Thor's eyes widened as Loki pulled his lips into a smile that resembled the smile of the villain from the man of bats movie that he remembered Tony watching once.

"You think you can know the life of an outcast, when you have lived your whole life in glory?"

"I don't need to know the life you have lived to know that you are suffering. But what you need to know is that I love you, Loki, and I want to mend all the things that have gone wrong because of me. I want you to give me a chance."

The words rang in Loki's ears and the cold in his chest spread.

"Love?" he tilted his head to one side, his voice strangely calm. "Love?' he said one more time, a chuckle emitting from his lips. Loki nodded to himself. "I am afraid I am not familiar with the word." He shook his head as he looked at Thor.

The change in his brother was amazing, Thor noticed. Before he had looked like a broken child, on the verge of tears, now he looked … stone cold. A silence ensured between the two brothers.

"You were. Once. Now hate has consumed you and has left you an empty shell. I shall take my leave. Until we meet again, brother" Thor turned around to leave. If Loki wanted to bless him with a cold shoulder, he might as well return the favor.

"Oh please," Loki sighed, irritably. "Let's not return to our old routine of Asgard."

Thor's shoulder's tensed. He thought about responding, then deciding against it, walked out of the room without a word. He didn't want to make things worse than they already were.

Thor opened the door and found Tony and Pepper scurrying to stand up straight from their sitting positions against the wall.

"How'd it go?" Tony asked.

As if he didn't already know.

Thor stared at the two before shaking his head and walking away. Half way down the hall he turned around and spoke, "Have you called Banner?"

"Yup. He said it would take him a while, but he should be here soon." Tony replied. Thor nodded solemnly and walked away.

"The bastard," Tony growled.

Pepper didn't have to ask to know who he was talking about. She too had grown attached to all the Avengers, and she hated seeing Thor down just as much as Tony did.

"Maybe I should have left him unconscious for a while longer," Tony mused to himself.

"If I were you I would storm in there and give him a piece of my mind," Pepper commented. Tony turned to look at her, bewildered.

"This is Loki we're talking about, Pepper."

Pepper shrugged her shoulders. "So?"

"You've been hanging out with me too much, you know that right?" Tony responded, laughing slightly.

Pepper nodded.

"But you know, the more I think of it, the better of an idea it seems to me." Tony mused.

"If he doesn't throw you out the window first."

"Hahaha, funny Pepper, really funny." Tony paused. "Well … he wouldn't. He's too weak and plus he needs a place to stay."

"True. But I can't see that stopping him. I mean he has Thor on his side."

Tony laughed uneasily.

"I wonder if he's going to take him back to Asgard."

"Sir." A computerized voice interrupted their conversation.

"Yes, Jarvis?"

"Misters Steve, Clint, Nick Fury and Madame Natasha are in the living room requesting your presence."

"How'd he find out?" Tony asked out loud.

"Fury also asks that you bring Thor with you."

"Tell him to keep his pants on, I'm coming." Tony sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I should get going. Can you go find Thor?"

"Yeah ..." Pepper paused. "Good luck," she added.

"Thanks, we'll be needing it."

* * *

** I am having trouble nailing Thor's speech pattern and it's ANNOYING. Just wanted to get that off my chest. I mean, I don't want him to constantly call Tony, "man of iron" but then I can't imagine him saying Tony. And Stark sounds too formal. Help?**


	9. Truce

Truce

"What the hell were you all thinking?" Fury was angrily pacing around the room.

Tony was sprawled on one of the couches, sitting next to Bruce. One of his legs dangled off the arm rest of the sofa and the other was rested on the ground. His arms were spread on the back of the sofa, his head thrown back, eyes staring at the ceiling. Everything about him screamed that he was bored out of his mind. He had lost interest after the "Were you out of your minds?" Plus, seeing Steve look like a toddler who was getting yelled at and watching all the other Avengers sit stone faced was no fun.

"Director Fury," Thor began, "I understand that you hold a grudge against my brother and your grudge is justified, but if we hadn't retrieved him from Jotunheim, then we would be risking more than his safety. We could have faced another invasion."

Tony smiled as he lifted his head. Thor was playing it safe, none of his usual "he is my brother and it's my duty to protect him." Maybe things would be interesting after all.

"An invasion?" Fury stopped pacing in front of Thor and crossed his arms. "As far as my understanding goes, this was a matter between Jotunheim and Asgard. How could Earth possibly have been affected? But now that you got the Avengers involved, God knows what might come our way."

"You don't know the whole story, director Fury. The Draugs and Frost Giants wanted to gain the Book of Nine Realms from my father." Thor spoke as if everyone would know what he was talking about.

"Son, I am but a human. What the hell is this Book of Nine Realms?"

"It's a book that holds the elders words," Tony returned his head to the back of the sofa and returned to staring at the ceiling.

Fury was staring at Thor with narrow eyes. "All the things I would do if you weren't a god …" he sighed.

"It's a spell book." Phil spoke from his corner, his eyes scrolling up and down the screen of his tablet.

"A spell book?" Fury half screamed. "You mean the Avengers might just have waged an intergalactic war over a GOD DAMNED SPELL BOOK?"

"A spell book that could have spelled the end of the world." Tony said. In reality he didn't know what he was talking about.

Fury turned on him.

"And you, Stark." Fury pointed a finger at him. "Who gave you authorization to use the MC blaster? You were supposed to report to us! Not go test it on your own."

"Since when have I signed away my inventions to you? I don't report to anyone. I am not your toy soldier." Tony replied swiftly, never taking his eyes of the ceiling.

"Am I to understand that as of now Loki is being housed in Stark Tower?"

"Yes."

Fury was caught off guard for a moment, he hadn't expected Tony to respond with an affirmative.

"And for how long to you plan to house the enemy?" In his defense, Tony pointed a leg in Thor's direction. "Ask him. It's not like I'm doing this because I want to."

Fury once again turned on Thor. "So, Thor, how long are you planning on having the Avengers babysit your brother? Stark Tower is not a daycare; it's the Avengers HQ. What if he does something?"

"You rather have Loki in the hands of the more dangerous enemy, with whom me might form an alliance and once again try to wreak havoc in your world, than close at hand where we can keep an eye on him?"

A vein popped in Fury's head.

"Romanoff, Barton!"

The two snapped to attention.

"Explain yourselves."

Clint responded. "Nick, Thor's right. Would you rather we have thousands and thousands of Frost Giants and Draugs crawling all over the place and hurting citizens, or would you rather we keep Loki close by? I mean this way we can keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't act out."

"He's right you know." Phil spoke from his corner. A glare from Fury silenced him quickly.

"Though you know, Thor never properly answered your question, Fury." Tony brought attention back onto him. The only reason he spoke was because he too wanted to know how long he would have to put up with Loki in his house.

"Friend Tony, could you please shelter my brother till he recovers?"

"How long is that going to be?"

"A while." Bruce answered for Thor. "I don't know exactly … but something fishy happened to him. He's not only physically deteriorating, but like ... there's something wrong with his mind. That's what really caused the coma."

"Thank you, Bruce. We can add that to our list of proof that Loki is insane. But you said "deteriorating." As in, present tense. He's getting worse?" Tony pointed out.

Bruce shifted in his seat. "Well … not exactly … it's kind of difficult to explain."

"Oh well, whatever. All I am concerned about is that I have a psychopath in one of my guest rooms."

"So you're not going to keep him here?" Fury was quick to jump back in.

"I never said that. Hey, I don't like the guy any more than you do, but he is valuable. After weeks of practicing with a secondary source, I finally have the real thing."

"You're going to continue your research?"

"Why not? I mean there's not much I can do ... hey, Thor, why can't you take him back to Asgard?" The thought had just occurred to Tony.

"Asgard would not suit him at the moment. He needs a place to rest; Asgard is not that place."

"If I'm nice to him, can I use him for my experiments?" Steve shook his head and Bruce cracked a smile. Clint and Natasha were looking at him as if he was a hopeless case.

"If he consents."

"That's as good as telling me 'no.'"

Thor shrugged.

"Doesn't that Asgardian gear bother you? It looks so uncomfortable" Tony could not help his haywire brain. Thoughts were flying all over the place, both related and unrelated to the matter at hand.

"Stark," the sharp voice cut off his train of thought.

"What?" He whined.

"I am trying to figure something out here." Fury replied.

"Uh-huh."

"So, Thor, what will happen to these Draugs and Frost Giants now?"

"I shall return to Asgard to discuss this with my father … though they might devise some other plan to obtain the book."

"And might that plan involve an attack on Earth?"

"I do not know."

"That's awesome, really. That's just effing awesome."

A moment of silence.

"You're all on alert from this day forward until the threat is dealt with. None of you are to leave New York City unless told otherwise. Stay near HQ, be ready for Loki to act up. Stark, you're in charge of him,"

"Wait? What? I was the one that was actually opposed to rescuing him!"

"Thor," Fury paused, totally ignoring Tony. "You get your ass to Asgard and fix this mess."

Everyone nodded in return, except for Tony, who was sitting with his mouth slightly open.

"Fury, I am not a babysitter,"

"You should have thought about that before, Stark."

"How is it my fault he ended up in my house?"

"If he steps out of line, it's on you. Keep him away from our files, will you." With that Fury stormed out of the room.

"Son of a bitch," Tony muttered under his breath.

Phil was left to look apologetic on behalf of Fury. With a slight nod of his head, he too left the room.

"So … what now?" Steve asked once all the officials had filed out. They all stood up, each one not sure what to say.

Thor made the first move. Walking over to Tony, he placed his hands on his shoulders.

"My friend," he stared at Tony with intense eyes. "Thank you for all you have done and are doing. I am sure that you will take wonderful care of my brother in my absence." Tony felt like he was being given orders not thanks.

"Don't worry, you just go gut some aliens." Tony replied … what else could he say? Not only would Fury unleash the world's worst terrors on him if Loki acted out, but now he had Thor's words hanging heavy over his shoulders, too.

Thor nodded, bid them all farewell, and left the room.

"It's going to be a while before we see him again." Natasha said.

"Yeah," Clint replied, then after a pause,

"So … we're on alert. Does that mean we have to find an apartment here somewhere?"

"There's plenty of room in my house." Steve offered Clint and Natasha.

"Thanks Cap, but we wouldn't want to impose. I am sure Phil can whip something up."

"More like the two of you want to be alone." Tony wiggled his eyebrows at the two. Clint tried not to grin while Tasha shot him her signature death glare.

"Bruce?" Steve turned to him.

"I already have my hovel."

Laughter.

"Ugh…" Tony groaned as he stretched. "Say, how about we take turns watching Loki. Kinda like shifts." He joked.

No one laughed this time.

"Don't worry, Tony. Bruce and I will be over often," Steve tried to reassure his friend.

"That reminds me, Pepper called saying he woke up. Something about you and the ultimate alcoholic drink?" Bruce raised an eyebrow at Tony, who shrugged.

"Blame my brilliance, not me."

"I should go check up on him."

"By all means."

"So, I guess that's all for today." Clint said as he checked his watch.

"Maybe for you all." Tony was dreading the next few days.

"Good luck mate." Clint clapped Tony on the arm as he walked by, followed by Natasha. "I'll drop by sometimes." Steve reinforced his earlier thoughts as he bid Tony farewell and left.

"Shall we?" Tony looked at Bruce after everyone had left.

"We shall."

* * *

Tony opened the door to find Pepper talking to Loki. Or well, Loki was huddled in the furthest corner he could find, and Pepper looked lost. Tony looked at her questioningly.

"I thought I should get him a change of clothes." She explained as she displayed the clothes in her hands. Tony took a moment to take in Loki. His Asgardian gear was torn all over the place and battered.

"Well, he'll have to take off all that gear so that Bruce can check him, so you can leave. And when he does I shall strategically steal his cloths and replace them with those." Tony pointed at the ones in Pepper's hands.

Loki looked at him like he was mad, while Pepper chuckled, gave the cloths to Tony, bade Bruce hello, and walked out of the room.

"What has been decided of my fate?" Loki spoke after Pepper had left. At least his voice was sounding better now. Tony noticed a little bottle of medicine for sore throats on the night stand. Pepper probably put it there.

"Welcome to Stark Daycare."

The look of terror on Loki's face was hilarious. Tony doubled over laughing.

"Look, I am as happy about it as you are, but listen. I am stuck with you and you're stuck with me. As much as I want to throw you out of a window, just so you can get a taste of your own medicine, I'm not. Let's be civil towards one another."

"Thor has put you up to this."

"The babysitting part, yes. Him and Fury. But the temporary truce, that was my own idea."

"I am not yet that desperate."

"You look pretty desperate to me."

Loki's eyes flared with anger.

"Hey Tony," Bruce placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "why don't you let me handle this."

Tony looked at him and when Bruce nodded he said, "go right ahead," and walked out the room after handing the clothes to his friend. He thought of looking for Pepper, but then decided against it. Instead he leaned against the wall next to the door, placing his arms behind him.

* * *

After what seemed like forever, Bruce came out.

"He's better now, but I still feel as if something's wrong."

"You want an x-ray?"

"No … I don't thin …" Bruce paused mid-sentence, "I think he's lost his magic." He said after a while of thought.

Tony was struck hard. "What? He can't have! I need him to have his magic!"

"I don't know … it was a guess. Have Jarvis do a scan for energy fluctuations and compare it with the old one."

"Will do."

"If you need anything else, call me."

"Will do. See you later."

"Yeah." With that, Bruce left.

Tony stood outside the door wondering if he should go in. Even if he did go in, what would he say?

Deciding against it, he went to look for Pepper.

* * *

He found her in the living room.

"Hey, Pepper?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you go grab some movies and books from the rec room and go give them to Loki?"

Pepper looked at him, shocked.

"What?"

"Can you go grab some movies and books from the rec room and go give them to Loki?"

"Uh … sure. Why?"

"Because if I were him, I would be bored out of my mind by now; and you know what happens when Loki gets bored."

"He's too weak to do anything."

"But still."

"Okay Tony."

"Oh and Pepper."

"Yes?"

"Show him how to use the t.v in his room … just so he doesn't blow it up."

Pepper laughed. "Okay, Tony."

* * *

It was around midnight that Tony was in his lab fixing his suit, which had been completely ruined, when he heard the crash. He imagined it was Loki throwing things around in his room.

"Jarvis, what was that?"

"Loki has just fallen in the kitchen."

Tony was a little surprised.

"What was he doing in the kitchen?"

"I believe he's hungry, sir."

"Can he get up?"

"He seems to be struggling."

"Thanks, Jarvis."

Tony continued to work on his suit. Then after a few minutes he sighed and placed his tools on the desk. Getting up, he headed up the stairs towards the kitchen.

* * *

"You know, you should really be in your room right now."

Loki looked up from his position on the tiled floor to see Stark leaning against one of the kitchen walls. How humiliating. Loki ignored him and continued to struggle to get up. He heard a sigh and then the steady sound of footsteps. Feeling a firm hand grip his shoulder, Loki found himself suddenly being pulled up. The sudden change in elevations caused his head to spin and he grasped onto the first solid thing he could find. That solid thing happened to be Tony's shoulder, so the two of them ended up facing each other in a weird half-way hug position; Loki had his hand on Tony's left shoulder, and Tony had his on Loki's right shoulder. There was a short amount of distance between them. The two men quickly returned their limbs to their sides and took a step away from each other.

"You know, you should really change out of that." Tony said to ease the tension in the air. He noticed that Bruce had no luck in getting Loki to change out of his Asgardian gear.

No reply.

"Won't it be uncomfortable sleeping in that?"

No reply.

"What were you doing in the kitchen?"

No reply.

"Are you hungry?"

No reply.

"For God's sake!" Tony threw his hands up. He had just begun to turn around and head back to his lab, when a growl (which sounded oddly like it was coming from Loki's stomach) made him stop. He turned back around and stared pointedly at Loki.

"Sit," He gestured to the stone dining table/counter that he had in his kitchen. Loki reluctantly obeyed.

"What do you like to eat?" Tony couldn't believe the situation he was in.

No reply, _what a surprise_.

"Do you want," Tony paused as he took in the contents of his fridge.

Making a mental note to ask Pepper to get groceries in the morning, he asked, "Do you want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"

Turning around to face Loki, he saw that the god was looking at him quizzically. Tony cursed his fate.

"You don't know what that is, do you?"

No reply.

"It's … well it's like bread with …it's … it's all I have right now … unless you want a grilled cheese sandwich. But those don't sit well in the stomach this late at night … well at least not for me." Tony saw that his ramblings were lost on the god.

"I'll just … peanut butter and jelly it is."

A silence ensured which was occasionally broken by the ding of the toaster and the clutter of silverware.

"I didn't know what flavor you would like, so I just put in strawberry." Tony said as he placed the plate in front of Loki. He really couldn't believe it. Never in a million years would he have imagined making Loki a sandwich. The world was mocking him, Tony was sure of it.

Loki looked at the sandwich in his plate. Taking a finger he lightly poked the bread.

"It's not poisoned." Tony offered.

A few minutes of nothing, then, hesitantly, Loki picked up the sandwich and began to eat. Just because Tony nothing better to be doing (well he did actually, he had to fix his suit, but that could be done later) he sat across the table and watched Loki.

"You know, I am making an effort, here."

No reply.

"Did the Draugs take your ability to speak too? Oh that reminds me, Jarvis."

"Yes sir?" The computerized butler responded.

"Energy scans, please."

Loki sharply turned his head up, his eyes narrow.

"Already have them, sir."

"Oh, wonderful! Display."

Loki watched as two scans of a body, his body, appeared in front of Stark. They were floating in midair in front of him, giving off a blue light. If he was correct, the scans had something to do with his magic. He watched as the human traced his fingers along the scans, whispering under his breath. Numbers zoomed past too fast for Loki to comprehend, but the human seemed to be eating them up. Even though Stark was insufferable, Loki had always found his craving for knowledge and his intelligence … appealing. In Asgard the only thing worth pride was a warrior's strength, another reason to cast Loki into the shadows. He'd always been one for books and knowledge, not fighting.

"It's still there." Tony said after a while. "On the scans from when we captured you," Tony brought the map forward so that Loki could also see, "you have energy running through your very veins, though most of it is concentrated in your chest, near your heart. But on the more recent one," Tony sent the current one back and brought the second one forward, "the energy running through your veins had vanished, but it's still there, concentrated near your heart." Tony traced his fingers along the scans as he spoke.

A pause.

"It's just blocked …"

"Is there chance of recovery?" Loki's voice startled Tony; he'd been lost in his own thoughts.

There was something in Loki's eyes that made a pang go off in Tony's stomach. Maybe it was the reflection of a broken spirit, of a shattered faith ... all familiar things to Tony.

"Recovery …" Tony thought for a moment. "Maybe it needs fermenting," he offered when he couldn't think of anything.

Loki's eyes went cold and Tony mentally kicked himself.

"I am not kidding." He said in hope of fixing his mistake. A part of Tony asked why he was even bothering, who cared if Loki was pissed at him or didn't like him? But another part of Tony was saying that he had proposed a truce so might as well live up to it. Yet another part, a stranger part, wanted to unravel all the layers to Loki, to figure him out … because maybe,_ just maybe_, Pepper was right; maybe he and Loki had more in common than what meets the eye. Tony dismissed this part of his brain. He was creeping himself out.

"When I was working on the MC series, which was basically me trying to extract magic from your staff and trying to harness its power, I failed a million times. But then I realized that I needed to wait; to give the container some time for it's energy to correlate with your magic. So yeah … fermentation." Tony finished off lamely.

Loki's expression was making him uneasy even though he couldn't read it.

"You managed to harness my magic?" The god asked after a while.

"Yup." Tony replied proudly. "It's what I used to defeat the dementor."

Loki looked puzzled.

"The Draug." Tony corrected himself. He watched as the little color that he had drained form Loki's face, and as he clenched his hands into fists till the knuckles on his hands went white. Tony wondered what exactly went down in the cave, but did not address his curiosity out loud.

"Are you going to continue to work on your MC series?" Loki asked after another moment of silence.

"Yeah, after I fix my suit."

"May I watch?"

Tony raised an eyebrow at the god. "You wanna watch?"

"I wish to regain my magic as soon as possible."

"Oh …" Tony mulled the thought over. "Can I run tests on you?" he asked.

For a moment Loki looked taken aback, but then he regained his composure. "If that's what it takes."

"So … this is a truce?"

A pause.

"For now."

"Of course." Tony found himself grinning.

"I shall head back to my quarters now." Loki pushed his empty plate away, got up, and made his way out of the kitchen.

"Hey, Loki?" the words were out of Tony's mouth before he knew what he was doing.

The god paused but did not turn around.

"Can you make it to your room without falling over?"

Loki ignored him and proceeded to walk out.

"It was a joke!" Tony called after him. Once his back was out of sight, Tony sighed. He couldn't believe that he had managed to carry out a civil conversation with the god of mischief, without any one getting hurt. More surprisingly … it wasn't half bad. Loki seemed to understand what Tony was talking about whereas to a regular person, Tony would have had to explain every concept in acute detail.

Tony shook his head. He was not about to go and get friendly with Loki after one conversation in his kitchen. Loki was weak and desperate and had no choice other than to behave. Once he got better, things would return to normal.

Picking up Loki's plate, Tony placed it in the sink and chuckled. He had actually eaten the whole thing. Quite surprising. Loki must have been starving. Tony made a mental note to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner made and sent to Loki's room since the bastard would probably be too proud to come and get it on his own.

Tony sighed as he rubbed his temples. After checking the fridge to make sure there was something in there for breakfast, he headed towards his room. He needed to rest.


	10. College Psychology Classes

**A/N: Be prepared for a long and screwy chapter. Because, seriously, I sat down to write this and an hour later when I was rereading it I was like "what the actual hell?"**

**So yeah ... shitty chapter. **

* * *

College Psychology Classes

Loki was in his room reading Three Blind Mice by Agatha Christie; simply having picked the first book from atop the mountain of books that Stark's assistant had brought him. Now, as he was almost done with the book, he paused and placed it besides him. Stark's choice of literature was … intriguing. Loki had to admit that the short novel was interesting. Maybe he could learn something from Midgardian crime/mystery novels. Trapping the Avengers in a manor in the middle of a dangerous snow storm and then killing them off one by one would be quite fun. Loki ignored the fact that the Avengers were called _super_heroes for a reason. Sighing, Loki brought his hands to his temples.

"How much longer?" He asked the empty air. The only good thing about his situation was that he was left alone. He didn't have any guards, a foolish mistake on the mortals' behalf, since as soon as he received his powers back, he would be back to causing mass destruction. Even better, there were no constant visits from Thor, who to the best of Loki's knowledge was back in Asgard.

Everything was bliss.

Except for last night's endeavor which Loki was going to try to forget as best he could. The proposal for a truce had confused him, but he had played along. After all, if he was going to live in Stark's house, he didn't want to get on his bad side any more than he already had. Also, he couldn't believe that he had actually asked Stark if he could watch him in his lab. What had he been thinking? Well, he had been hungry and delusional. He wasn't anymore. Stark was living up to the truce by sending Loki his meals to his room. Due to this, Loki planned to never leave the sanctuary of his room.

* * *

Tony was in his lab working on his suit, when he was interrupted by Jarvis.

"Sir, Mr. Rogers is at the door."

"Let him in," Tony replied without taking his eyes off the suit. "Tell him to come down."

A few minutes later he heard the sound of numbers being punched in on his security pad.

"How's it coming along?" Steve's voice floated to Tony's ears.

"Fine. It's taking so long because I am making minor adjustments."

"For the MC Blaster?"

"Kind of."

"How's Loki?"

"Fine … I guess. He's in his room."

"No trouble?"

"Not yet. We called a temporary truce."

Steve laughed. "And you were worried that he was going to be a nuisance."

"Hey, this is Loki we're talking about, ten bucks he's still going to be a pain in the ass. The truce was more for my own sanity."

"Fury wants to have him analyzed."

"Why? My work with the MC series not going fast enough for him?"

"Probably wants to do with Loki what he wanted to do with the Tesseract."

"Weaponize?" Tony finally put his tools down and turned to face Steve. His friend grimly nodded.

"He can't. Not without knowing how to extract it, compress it …" and that's when it hit Tony. "Compress it …" He said as he slammed his hands on his desk in realization. "Wait here," he said to Steve as he ran out of his lab and up the stairs. Steve stood in his spot dumbfounded.

* * *

Loki knew the mortal was coming, seconds before the doorknob rattled and the door was thrown open. He always had spectacular hearing.

"Hey, Loki," Stark spoke breathlessly. "When you have to shoot a laser with your magic or something of the sort, how do you do it? Do you just go "freeze ray!" and it happens, or what?" Loki watched as Stark emphasized his words with his hands. The words "freeze ray" had been enacted by him bringing his hands together and then thrusting them out. He couldn't believe the level of stupidity that the mortal was showing.

"Or is it a nerve reaction? Like is it wired into your nervous system? Like a reaction to danger? Kinda like the way armadillos roll up when they sense danger? But then how can you control it?" All of this was said in one breath.

Loki took in the sight of the mortal. He looked like a kid in a candy store, a Midgardian expression that quite appealed to Loki.

It was a while before he replied.

"I'll leave you to figure it out."

* * *

The rush that Tony had been feeling slowly ebbed away. This was Loki, he remembered. He had been foolish to expect a real answer from him.

"Oh well, your loss." Tony threw over his shoulder as he slammed the door and trudged back to his lab. Didn't the bastard say that he wanted his magic back as soon as possible?

"What happened?" Steve asked when he saw his friend come sulking back.

The only response he got from Tony was "that bastard." Steve chuckled to himself.

"The way you ran up the stairs I thought you had some sort of epiphany."

"I did."

"So why the long face?"

"Because right now it's just a theory and I need a test subject. But the only test subject is sitting in his room and not cooperating."

"Did you really expect him to go along?"

Tony took a while before he answered.

"Yes." It was the truth. Why else would Tony have sprinted up the stairs? Some part of Tony was really holding Loki to their truce.

Steve looked taken aback. "Yes?" he asked.

"No."

"No?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Yup."

The conversation hung in the air between them.

"So what are you going to do now?" Steve asked.

"Finish this and then call Pepper. Ask her to get something to eat on her way here. Then lock myself in the lab again and let Pepper deal with all my work and Loki."

Steve laughed.

"I feel so bad for her sometimes." he joked.

Tony shrugged. "She applied for the job." Tony picked up his tools again and resumed working on his suit. One part of his brain was working on his suit modifications, another part was concentrating on talking to Steve, and another was working on the MC series.

"Now that you brought her up, where is she? She's usually here by now."

"She's at her boyfriend's place, James, or something,"

"Gerald," Steve corrected him.

"Whatever. She's helping him set up for a party."

"Oh."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What are you doing these days?"

"Not much …" Steve let his sentence hang.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked noticing distress in the air. If it were anyone but Steve … well maybe Pepper and Bruce, he wouldn't have cared.

"June 11th is coming up."

"Is it? Really? I thought we were still in March. No wonder it's so hot." Tony joked, after all, what was so special about the 11th of June? And then Tony remembered. He sucked in a breath, realizing the gravity of his words. Being Steve, he probably didn't take them to heart, but that didn't make Tony feel any better. He turned to face his friend and smiled solemnly.

"I'm a jackass, I know." He spoke for Steve. Before Cap could contradict him, he continued speaking, "I am sure she must be waiting, too." He said. The hurt and longing in Steve's eyes was all too much for Tony. "Hey, cheer up Cap. It's only a few more hours." He joked.

Steve offered a bittersweet smile.

"A few hours, huh?" Tony knew it was his attempt at a joke and he also knew that it ran much deeper than that. After all, what's a few hours when you've been frozen in ice for 70 years?

"Tell her Tony said 'hi'" Tony returned to face his work.

"Will do ... hey, Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"Loki's at the door."

"What?" Tony tuned his head towards the door. Surely enough, Loki was standing there, a pissed expression on his face. Tony let out a weird noise, somewhere between a chuckle and a cough, and then strutted towards the door . Opening it, he asked

"What?"

"Why does my window have an electric barrier?"

"So you don't jump out."

"And why would I do that?"

"I don't know, you're crazy enough to try."

Behind him Steve muffled laughter.

"I value my life much more than that, Stark."

"The point wasn't you killing yourself. It was to stop you from escaping. Aren't you like, immortal? Will jumping out a window really kill you?"

"Take down the barrier."

"I didn't put it there. Fury did."

"I am sure with your brains, you can manage without Fury."

"Why, Loki!" Tony brought a dainty hand to his heart. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me! By the way, how'd you get downstairs without tripping over your own feet? Do you feel better?"

"Stark," Loki growled.

"Odinson," Tony growled in return, not entirely serious. He noticed Loki's eye twitch and a gear in his head started spinning.

"Laufeyson, then?" He asked.

Loki's eyes flared with anger. Instead of a comeback, which Tony was expecting, Loki spun on his heels and stalked up the stairs.

"I think you hit a chord, there." Steve said from behind him.

"I think so too." The gears in Tony's head were in full motion now. "Steve, I am feeling suicidal." He informed his friend as he watched Loki stomp up the stairs.

"I get your suits and mansion."

"In your dreams," Tony laughed. He turned back and faced his table. Suddenly the prospect of working on his suit wasn't appealing.

"Wanna go out and eat?"

"Weren't you going to call Pepper?"

"Good idea, we can take her with us."

"You're going to leave Loki alone?"

"Good point. Jarvis, dial Pepper for me."

* * *

Pain. That's the first thing Loki felt. Such extreme pain that opening his eyes became a difficult task. He could hear his heart pound and his breaths were coming out hard and uneven. His brain was cut off from its usual oxygen supply and it _god damned hurt like hell_. Loki felt as if his head was about to explode. His lungs seemed to be shriveling. Every muscle in his body was coiled tightly and his limbs were twisting in ways he was sure they shouldn't have been. He had been sleeping peacefully when suddenly the fit seized him. If he didn't know better he would have classified it as a seizure.

* * *

Hours. Hours had gone by. He lay in his bed in pain. But he had gotten used to it. Pain was an old friend.

The End. Many times he had wondered if this was the end. But it couldn't be. He still had things he needed to do.

Nightmares. Would they ever leave him alone? He had visited the rose field so many times that the smell of roses was clogging up his nose. He dreamt of dark caves in which some strange looking monster had cut him open and had taken his heart, looking like a small raisin, out from his body; he dreamt of the day he fallen from the bifrost; he dreamt of the day he found out what he really was; he dreamt and dreamt and dreamt and with every dream another part of him died.

Voices. They just wouldn't leave him alone. He didn't need others to bring him down, the voices in his head were enough for that.

Tears flooded to his closed eyes when the pain became unbearable. Before he knew it, he had passed out.

* * *

"Shit!" Through the haze the words reached Loki. He could not place the voice, despite the fact that it sounded familiar. It was a husky voice, and sounded pretty stuck-up. Despite this it had a lure to it that made Loki think that he wouldn't mind listening to the voice all day. Through the jabbing pain he felt pressure on his forehead. A hand. Just as warmth began to flood his stone cold body the hand was taken away. "NO!" Loki wanted to cry out, but alas, he could not. The hand was now at his cheek, and then at his neck. He felt something against his chest near where his heart should be.

"His heart's beating way to fast."

Loki thanked the stranger for clearing up the obvious.

"Jarvis, since when has he been convulsing?"

"It's been hours, sir."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"I registered it as post-trauma."

"Jarvis," the person hissed. Loki could finally place the voice as a male's.

"Ring up Bruce."

"Yes, sir."

"I am going to go get some … water or something." The man said hurriedly. Loki heard the thud of footsteps which could only mean the person was running. Who was this person that cared for him so? Loki couldn't remain conscious long enough to find out.

* * *

Cold. Couldn't the person tell that he was already so cold? Why was he placing something cold and wet on his face? Loki didn't like it at all.

Relief. Strangely enough, this cold brought relief with it. It was nothing like the cold that plagued Loki.

"He's shivering, Bruce. Do you think that ice pack is a good idea?"

"He's not shivering because of the ice pack; it's something else. I told you something was off with him." Another voice had joined the first one. This one was called Bruce. Something told Loki he should recognize the name, but he didn't. This second voice was pleasant to listen to, not like the first voice, but pleasant in a different manner.

"Yeah, I know. I checked up on his magic, it's been blocked … but this? What's this?"

"I … I don't know." The pleasant voice cracked and a silence ensured.

"Call Jarvis?"

"Call him yourself."

"Are you mad at a computer, Tony?"

No response. Who was Tony?

"Jarvis." The second voice spoke. Who was this Jarvis?

"Yes ?"

"If I get you a blood sample, can you analyze it for me?"

"I can surely scan it."

"That would be fine," Loki felt a prick somewhere in his arm. A blood sample?

"What do I do with this, Tony?"

"Give it to me. Does he need medicine or anything?"

"I'll tell you that after I get the report."

Footsteps and a slight thud informed Loki that someone had left the room. Loki didn't have enough time to dwell on it though. Pressure near his temples made him tense. He preferred the first voice's hands. The second voice was pressing its index and middle fingers to Loki's temples. At first, the gesture was soothing, but then as the pressure increased a sudden stab of pain went through Loki's body and he was able to shout. A clang sounded.

"What'd you drop Tony?" the second voice yelled to the voice that was no longer in the room.

"Don't worry it wasn't the blood sample." The first voice, which sounded far away, yelled back. After the sudden stab of pain, things became easy. His muscles, which had slowly been unraveling, finally sprang back to the way they should have been and his limbs calmed down. Despite this, his headache remained.

"Jarvis should have the results in a minute's time," The first voice had returned to the room. "What was the yelling for?" the voice asked.

"It was to get his nerves to connect. If you look closely you can see that he's having trouble opening his eyes. Also, he's in so much pain but he wasn't so much as able to whimper. So when I applied pressure to his temples, his nerves connected and he screamed."

"So he's better?"

"All in due time."

"The results are ready. Blood tests show that Loki has been injected with a highly concentrated form of Osmium. Level readings are 5.78." the voice of Jarvis interrupted the two men.

"But that doesn't make any sense." The second voice.

"It does."

"No … I mean … Jarvis, since when?"

"Readings show that the osmium developed rust while in his blood so a few days, more accurately 5 days."

"I thought that it would be something like that, that's why I said it doesn't make any sense … why such a late reaction?"

"You think whoever injected that in him, can control it?"

"I don't know … you think the Frost Giants and Draugs did it?"

"Why not?"

"But what's there purpose?"

"Thor said they wanted some sort of book …"

"No, I mean with Loki. How could …"

"Are you going soft Bruce?"

"You were the one pissed at Jarvis for not calling you earlier."

"That's 'cuz if Thor found out he would have murdered me."

"Sure."

Thor. The name brought all of Loki's senses back. He was in Stark Tower. The voices belonged to Stark and Banner.

"So what's the diagnosis?"

"You have anything that makes you vomit repeatedly?"

"Got something that causes diarrhea."

"I rather not go that far."

"You're right."

"But ... if it's in his blood …" the sentence hanged.

Speak Stark, speak, Loki thought. What happens if this thing is in my blood?

"It's not like we can take all his blood out and replace it." Banner replied.

"So what? We can't just leave him like this."

"Do you think we should get him checked by SHIELD specialists?"

"NO!" The response came out hurried and loud. Why would Stark refuse?

"What do you mean, no?"

"Just … no. You know Fury. He'll probably want to run a million tests and then figure out how to turn it into a weapon."

"That's true … but what else can we do."

"Jarvis, do you still have that blood sample?"

"Yes, sir."

"Awesome."

"And you're not going to run a million tests?"

"Not on him."

"This whole situation had gotten me on edge. Frost Giants, Draugs, a possible invasion, a weird spell book, and now Loki." Loki couldn't help but agree with Banner.

"I know."

"You look shaken."

"I just saw a god on the verge of collapse."

Loki heard Banner laugh.

"Wait. Jarvis?" That was Stark.

"Yes, sir?"

"Look up Osmium reactions to electrocution for me, will you?"

"Electrocution?" Banner asked.

"Fury placed an electric barrier around Stark Tower. If it reads Loki's DNA it shocks him. He tried to open a window before and got electrocuted, came down stairs to complain, and then after that I didn't hear from him."

"Wow … no chance of escape?"

"Well, I could always hack it and turn it off."

"Why don't you?"

Even though Loki didn't have his eyes open, he could picture Stark shrug his shoulders.

"Sir,"

"Yes Jarvis?"

"Osmium reacts to electric waves by creating a daughter isotope with unstable electrons and eventually explodes. Through exposure, rust forms on the now liquid osmium and body calls detect this rust as a threat and begin to eat away at one's own blood."

If Loki was able to he would have cringed.

"Without electrocution, what affect does osmium have in one's body?"

"I do not know of one's body, but it is safe of assume that the osmium injection is what is blocking off Loki's magic."

That couldn't be true. Loki's magic had been taken away by the Draug's eye. What was this osmium? Or was it that the Draugs had temporarily weakened Loki, since after all a Draug's eye didn't last forever, and then had injected this osmium?

"Get me a map of the periodic table and also look up counter elements to osmium. All of them."

"Got ideas?"

"Yup."

Silence.

"So what now?" That was Stark.

"We wait."

"Ugh."

"When's Thor coming back?"

"After Loki recovers I hope."

"Can you contact him?"

"I can't, but Clint or Tasha might be able to."

"Tell them to contact Thor, if they can. Ask him to get golden apples from Asgard."

"I can get golden apples from the supermarket … okay, they won't be _golden_, they'll be yellow, but same thing. Why do you need apples from Asgard?"

Banner chuckled. Stark was an idiot.

"No, Tony. Do you even know anything about Norse mythology?"

"Thor is the thunder god, Loki is the god of mischief and lies, and is called silver-tongue, and Odin is the all-father and married to Gaea. They rule in Asgard, other than Gaea, and then there are the other eight realms, in which Midgard is Earth. There are also a dozen other gods, but … yeah."

Loki pictured Banner nodding. "Those are just the fundamentals. Golden apples are what keep the Norse gods immortal."

A moment of silence.

"So if I ate a golden apple I would become immortal?"

"You would need a constant supply."

"I can just plant a golden apple tree."

"Where would you get the seeds?"

"Ask Thor to get them for me."

"And Thor would agree?"

If only the mortals knew that being immortal was a curse.

"Good point." A moment of silence and then, "So you're thinking that maybe we can save him by feeding him apples?"

"Something of the sort."

"Hm … Jarvis dial SHIELD."

"Will do, sir."

"You go talk to them, Bruce."

"Okay. You're going to stay here?"

"Just in case he wakes up."

"Want coffee?"

"If Pepper makes it then yes."

Loki heard Banner laugh as he walked out the room. Just because he had nothing to think about and due to the fact that he was in some state of paralysis, Loki started to dwell on the relationship between Stark and Potts, and the rest of the Avengers. Potts and Stark weren't in any sort of relationship other than close friends, but the spark was there. If he hadn't known Stark's carefree attitude, he would have thought that Stark was running from the obvious and hiding behind a stone wall. Loki ignored the fact that that was exactly what he was doing. Potts and Stark were very close, and yet Stark didn't let her in, at least not all the way. He was always holding back. With the other Avengers Stark was friendly, yet, as with Potts, he held back. What was it that made him so cautious? Out of all the humans that Loki had met, Stark was by far the most interesting. It was fates cruel play that Stark was on the side of angels and that they were enemies, not that Loki would ever admit it. In fact when the thought passed, Loki branded himself as delusional.

The smell of roses drifted back and Loki cursed whoever was in charge of his fate.

* * *

He was sure it was another day. Loki slowly opened his eyes and immediately regretted the decision. The light seeping in through the window was blinding. Loki had no remembrance of when he had fallen asleep. A cool breeze made him shudder. Apparently Stark didn't have trouble with the window.

Moving his head, Loki saw that the said human was sitting on the floor, against one of the walls, and dozing off. Loki watched as the mortal's chest rose and fell with every breath and wondered why he hadn't just let Loki die. Stark had blamed his actions on Thor, but Loki knew Thor wouldn't have done anything to Stark, and maybe Stark knew that too. Or maybe Loki was just over thinking. That was most definitely it; unless the human felt pitiful towards him. His earlier words came back to Loki, "I just saw a god on the verge of collapse." A god on the verge of collapse … what an interesting term.

"I know I am gorgeous beyond human comprehension, but that does not warrant staring." The voice was low, barely above a whisper, and still laced with sleep. Loki was taken from his thoughts and green eyes met brown ones.

"Good morning, Stark." Maybe a truce, a complete truce, wouldn't be a bad thing.

"To you too, sunshine." Stark picked himself off the floor and dusted off his jeans. Meanwhile, Loki worked on sitting up.

"You gave us quite a scare yesterday." Tony spoke between yawns.

"No one asked you for your help." Loki spoke words that he didn't mean.

"What can I do? I have a habit of sticking my nose where it doesn't belong. Apparently, I just saved your life, but I understand. You say that you value your life and therefore wouldn't jump out of a window, but you rather lose your life to a weird fit. Okay."

"I wouldn't have died."

"How can you be so sure?"

The truth was that Loki wasn't sure. Instead of answering, Loki opted for silence.

Stark stared at him for a while.

"You're a pain in the ass, you know that right?"

Silence.

"You know, all night long, you were mumbling? The same thing over and over and over again? The words sounded like brother and Thor."

Loki was struck cold. He had been dreaming of the roses.

"I just brought that up, because well, I didn't know you had a brother." Stark continued. "It was always, 'Thor is no brother of mine!' I mean that guy went through hell for you, literally, and you still refused to accept him. So you know, I found it strange that you were mumbling his name in your sleep. Except, well it looked like you were having a nightmare, so I thought maybe a giant Thor was stepping on you."

Loki looked at Stark blankly, wondering where he had gotten the notion.

"College psychology classes," he began to explain. "Doesn't the story go something like you were always cast in Thor's shadow and everyone in Asgard despised you? Well, not everyone, not your foster parents and not Thor, but apparently that wasn't good enough for you. Anyways, you wanted to show your father that you were better than Thor and there was this whole thing that resulted in you falling from the Bifrost. You had a scarred childhood, in your opinion, and then when you grew older you learned that you were, supposedly, a monster that you had grown up to hate. You learned that you were being used and you felt betrayed. Yet you still tried to prove yourself, but you were never good enough. So, I thought that a giant Thor was stepping on you … because of the whole shadow and never going to be good enough thing."

"How are you able to speak so much so early in the morning?"

"It's 12:30, technically its noon." Loki saw that Stark was on a roll and that he wasn't going to stop any time soon.

"But you know what I don't get? Why do you think you had such a terrible childhood? I mean, Thor loves you more than anything and I suppose, your parents do too. I know what it feels like when you think that you're just a waste of space to your parents," Basing it on the emptiness in Stark's eyes, Loki was sure he did, but that did not make a difference to him. No one could ever understand. "But think of it this way, Odin took you in when he didn't have to."

"To use me as leverage," Loki hissed through clenched teeth.

"At first," Stark corrected him. "At first. But that all changed, didn't it? And even if Odin didn't love you. Thor did. He never purposely …"

"No, he didn't shadow me purposely. He was just better in every way, that's why he didn't even need to try. But, he never noticed my suffering."

"What suffering? You had a better childhood than hundreds of kids, you were loved, maybe not by everyone, but the select few that did love you should have been all that mattered. Take it from me. I grew up around back stabbers, all alone. You had Thor. I had empty air. The people that I thought I could trust turned against me. But I didn't let that get to me. I've been responsible for the deaths of thousands. My weapons have caused mass destruction. And you think you're the monster? You weren't raised …"

"It's my destiny." Loki cut Stark off. His words were really beginning to irk Loki.

"Destiny? Destiny does not mold a person's choices. Instead, a person's deeds mold destiny." Tony didn't know if the words were a result of his own wisdom or if he remembered them from one of the t.v shows that he watched.

"You know nothing,"

"I know nothing? After Bruce left around fiveish, I stayed awake till three in the morning reading up on Norse mythology."

"And you still believe that my anger is unjustified?"

"There you go. Anger. What you are is angry. People make bad decisions when they're angry. That's what happened to you. As much as I hate to say it, you're not a monster, Loki. At first you were. Not because you're a Jotun, but because you were so driven by hate. But now, now Loki, you're just a scared and lost kid. Being a Frost Giant, it doesn't mean anything. I could have three heads and it wouldn't make a difference. I would still be Tony Stark. And neither were you a pawn. I know. For years I made weapons thinking that they were benefiting the world, and instead it turned out I was just helping people make money." Tony was trying to echo the conversation that Thor and Loki had the day Loki first woke up from his coma.

"At the age of ten, when Odin was telling Thor and I of the Great War, Thor swore that when he grew older he would wipe out all the Frost Giants. I too, wanted to accomplish that. I grew up hearing that Jotun's were …"

"But that doesn't matter. What mattes it that you're Loki. I know it sounds cheesy as hell, but come on. I saw how you flinched when I called you Odinson and Laufeyson. You don't want to be anything but Loki."

"What's the point of this conversation, Stark?"

"I'm hungry and low on caffeine."

"Then go get something to eat."

"Does going around blowing things up make you feel good, Loki?"

"What type of question is that Stark?"

"Just answer."

"It became boring after my first failed attempt at an invasion."

"Then why do you still do it?"

"It's what's expected." The words flew out of Loki's mouth before he knew it.

He watched as Stark's face fell. In a few short strides, Stark was in front of him and his fist made contact with Loki's jaw.

"I am not sending you breakfast, so if you don't come get it ... you're going to starve." With that Stark walked out of the room leaving one confused Loki. He really didn't understand the human. Was he hoping that Loki would change his antics? Was it pity? Sympathy? Had he gone "soft," as he had accused Banner. Or was there some ulterior motive?

There had to be an ulterior motive.

* * *

Curiosity killed the cat. Words to live by.

When Tony had heard Loki mumble in his sleep, his curiosity had gotten the best of him. When he saw the chance to address the matter, he had. It was a bad habit of Tony's; when he came across a puzzle, he had to solve it, no matter how difficult. And by far, Loki was the most interesting and most difficult puzzle he had ever come across. As he prepared breakfast, he doubted that Loki would venture out of his room.

He was right.

If only Loki wasn't Thor's little brother.

* * *

Loki threw the lamp on the nightstand, against the wall. The human had no business to try to talk sense into him. He did what he wanted. How could the human possibly understand all that he had been through? Lied to, cheated, betrayed, used. How could Stark, of all people, understand? And yet a part of Loki's brain said that Stark did understand.

"Oh, shut up." Loki spoke to himself. "He is but a human. A strange one at that. He can't possibly know what it feels like to be stuck in this infernal cycle."

"Loki," a computerized voice echoed in his room and Loki jumped. It was the damned computer butler, Jarvis.

"What?" Loki snapped.

"Mr. Stark asks that you refrain from throwing his furniture around. He also reminds you to take the medicine that can be found on your nightstand." The computer clicked off.

A strange human, indeed.


	11. One More Time

**A/N: T****his is more like a filler chapter than anything else so yeah... it's kinda dead**

* * *

One More Time

"Father," Thor had just entered the throne room and was kneeling on the ground.

"Stand up, son." Odin spoke from his place on the throne. "I see you are well."

"Yes, Father. Our attack was successful. We have retrieved Loki safely."

"Successful?" Odin let the word hang in the air, filling Thor with dread. "You think saving Loki means that the whole problem is solved?"

"No, Father, I do no …"

"Silence!" Odin cut his son off. "If anything, your attack has only made matters worse. The Frost Giants and Draugs have only begun to move faster and this time they are not targeting Asgard. They are targeting Midgard. I love my son, Thor. Loki means as much to me as he does to you. But Loki is not what was, or is, at stake. It's the future of the nine realms. And you have only hurried destruction in her path."

Thor was not to be moved. "Father, Midgard has its protectors. My friends and I …"

"Were lucky." Odin cut him off again.

"No, Father. You haven't seen our might. Luck must have played a big role, but we won the battle due to our own strength. We can fight of the Frost Giants and Draugs. But, Father. I came to ask of you, can you be sure that Midgard will be attacked?"

"If you wish, you may speak to Heimdall."

Thor nodded. "And Father, considering the book of nine realms …"

"Surely, you haven't told the Midgardians about it."

Thor's silence was all the answer Odin needed.

"The Midgardians ask for it?"

"No, Father. But that is not …"

"You do not have to worry about the book, Thor. It is safely hidden, away from anyone's reach."

Silence.

"I want you to go back to Midgard. Warn your friends that they have an invasion coming their way."

"How long do we have, Father?"

"I do not know, Thor. I do not know. All I know is that if Midgard falls, the other realms won't be far behind."

Thor briskly nodded, the full weight of the words resting on his shoulders.

"We shall meet again, soon. Till then, I bid you farewell." With these as his last words, Thor walked out of the throne room, not knowing that he would not see his father again, at least not for a very, very, long time.

* * *

The first thing Thor wanted to do was head to Stark Tower, yet he knew he could not. He had to report to Director Fury. Therefore, when he landed in front of SHIELD headquarters, he could not help but sigh. A bag of golden apples clutched in his hand, he walked into the building.

"Thor." Fury addressed the god as he entered Fury's office.

"Director Fury," Thor greeted back adding a slight nod of his head.

"What's the news?"

"Father fears an invasion."

"Fears?"

"He believes that there will be an invasion."

"We can't work on beliefs, Thor. We need facts."

Thor sighed.

"There will be an invasion, though as to exactly when, Father is not sure."

Fury nodded, if that had been the answer he was expecting. "What about your guardian person?"

"Heimdall?" Thor paused. "Very few things escape his notice, but sometimes even his vision his clouded."

Fury's eyebrows furrowed.

"I want you to go to Stark's place. Tell him to hurry the hell up with his suit and have a ton of MC Blasters at hand."

Thor nodded. "I shall take my leave."

Fury did not offer a response.

* * *

"Sir, Mr. Thor is at the door." Without averting his attention from the vials in his hands, Tony spoke. He was working on an antidote for Loki.

"Do you even have to ask by now, Jarvis? Let him in. Open the lab door since he'll probably smash the security pad, and tell him to come down."

As Tony poured the contents of one vial into the other, he heard a little ping which alerted him to the fact that his lab door was open. Shortly afterwards, dull thuds alerted him to Thor's arrival. At last, he would have the last ingredient.

"Hey big guy, how'd it go." Tony watched as the contents of the vial turned a dull green.

"Anthony, I fear I have grave news." Thor's voice was heavy as if he was lifting the world on his shoulders, which Tony was quite sure, he was in some way or another.

"I expected as much. What is it this time? Another invasion."

"Yes."

"Who's the villain this time? Frosties and Dementors?"

"That sums it up."

"Brilliant." Tony replied dryly. Thank God he had finished his suit yesterday. He still needed to attach the MC Blasters, but at least it was done.

"How is my brother, friend Tony?" Thor's voice got even heavier with burden, if that was possible.

Tony cringed. "He's fine," was his reply.

"Has he been a bother?"

"He's Loki, when can he ever not be a bother?"

Thor laughed.

"I shall go see to him, then."

"Hey Thor?" Tony called after the god, turning to face him.

"Yes?"

"Why do you still bother talking to Loki? He's not going to see sense anytime soon." Tony didn't want to see the guy have his last hopes torn into pieces.

"Because he is my brother."

"Technically,"

"Technicalities do not matter to me, man of iron." Thor's tone was icy informing Tony that he was treading on thin ice.

"No, it's just that yesterday," Tony paused. If he was going to tell Thor about his conversation with Loki, might as well tell Thor the whole story. It's not like Thor could rip his head off days before a possible invasion … okay, well maybe he was being overly dramatic. "It's just that yesterday, I went into Loki's room to check on him and …" Tony launched into the story of the past day. Thor's reaction was not what he was expecting.

"Is he still in harm's way?"

"As of now, yes. But I'm working on an antidote." Tony gestured to the vial in his hand.

"Thank you, Anthony."

"You're not mad?" Tony knew it was a foolish question, but it was out of his mouth before he could help himself.

Thor looked confused. "Why would I be angry? More than anything else I am grateful. I see that you have been taking care of my brother. His … current situation is not your fault."

"You know he calls your name in his sleep."

At this, Thor looked taken aback. "What?" He asked.

"I was with him all night, just in case he launched into another fit, but instead he had nightmares … I think. He was mumbling your name and calling you brother."

A small smile formed on Thor's lips.

"And you ask why I constantly try to talk to him."

Tony sighed. "Yesterday, when I heard him mumbling, I got really pissed off. When he woke up I tried talking to him about it and he wouldn't listen. He acts like he's a stone cold statue and it's pathetic. He's a dickwad.""

Thor flinched, but other than that he ignored the obscenity. "He may be … hard to deal with … but he is just a lost soul."

"You see, that's where you're wrong." Tony said turning back to his work. "He is not a lost soul. He knows what he's doing, and he knows that it's wrong. The only reason he's continuing is 'cuz he thinks that that's whats expected of him. He's doing it more out of a sense of duty than anything else."

"He said this to you?"

"Yeah."

"Anthony?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for trying to address my brother."

Tony was shocked. He turned to face Thor and looked at him questioningly.

"It shows that you have hope for him. I am grateful for that. Now, if you'll excuse me." With that Thor left.

"Hope? For Loki? What the hell, Thor?" Tony said to his now empty lab room.

* * *

"Loki, may I come in?"

Loki lazily tilted his head toward the door. He was sitting on his bed, reading another one of the novels that had been brought to him. The voice was unmistakable. His broth … Thor was back. Loki did not understand the purpose of knocking. It wasn't like Loki could say no. And even if Loki did, it's not like Thor would have gone away. Because of this, Loki did not reply. The door opened anyway.

"Loki, how are you?" To say Thor's appearance shocked Loki would have been an understatement. He had never seen Thor look so haggard.

"I am faring fine; though by the looks of you, you cannot say the same." Loki smirked.

"I hear that you have been diagnosed with some strange disease." Thor took a seat on one of the armchairs in Loki's room.

"No, Thor. No, I haven't. It's not a disease and I haven't been diagnosed with anything. Stark's working on an antidote." The last part of the sentence had added itself.

"Yes, I am just coming from his layer."

"It's called a lab, Thor."

Thor stared at Loki with shining eyes.

"You seem to be in a good mood."

Loki didn't know how to respond to that. He wasn't in a terrible mood, yet it couldn't be described as "good." Stark had taken down the electric barrier, and the fresh air was making him giddy. He had been allowed to go to the roof, only with Stark's assistant close behind. From his spot on the roof, he had observed the skies, a childhood past time that he relished. The acute freedom, despite being downgrading, had put Loki in a light mood. He was also recovering. The pain had almost completely vanished, thanks to the Midgardian painkillers. Stark had warned him that the painkillers wouldn't get rid of the problem, but they would lessen the pain, and for now that was all Loki needed.

"I am not sure if that would be the right term, but yes."

Thor smiled.

"It is wonderful to see you coming back, brother."

The 'good mood' flew from Loki. Apparently the change was visible on Loki's face for Thor's smile also faltered.

"The word 'brother,' is it taboo?"

"You're slowly catching onto the Midgardian dialect."

Silence.

"If you do not wish to talk, then I shall." Thor ended the silence. Internally, Loki groaned.

"I've told you before, brother, that I understand your pain and you could not believe me. I do not think you remember, but I was a big blundering buffoon, was I not?" Thor paused, waiting for Loki to react to the old nickname. Loki did not. Thor continued, "Next to you who was always so calm and composed. You, who were so very smart, I sometimes felt big and awkward. Yes, I was praised far beyond you, but in my eyes, you were better in many ways. I did not let that envy consume me, however, for I loved you too much." Thor waited for the information to sink in. Loki found this confession shocking, but it was different than what Loki had to go through. Thor experienced common day jealousy, not something that he had to live with his whole life. Thor had always been loved, not like Loki. Thor's short moments of envy could not compare to Loki's lifelong despair.

"I still think back to the days when we would sit by the apple orchards and you would spin these alluring tales of damsels in distress and gigantic dragons. In the tales you always spoke of knights of valor," a smile grew on Thor's face as his eyes clouded over. "Their descriptions bouncing back and forth between you and I. I enjoyed those moments very much."

Loki had too. But he wouldn't say that to Thor. No, he just sat on his bed, his face impassive.

"No matter what happened, I knew I could always rely on you. That you would have my back and that you would keep my grounded. And I had thought that you felt the same. That I would always have your back." Loki had. But things change. People change.

"I see that my words are lost on you."

Took him long enough.

"How do you like Stark Tower?"

A chuckle emitted from Loki's lips. What type of question was that?

"Brother, I fear that we do not have enough time. There are so many things that I would like to talk to you about, but fate is playing a deadly game and we are at the center of it and destiny leads us to our demise."

Loki had met with demise a million times and fate had harmed him as much as it could.

"Destiny does not determine a person's deeds or fate. Instead, a person's deeds determine destiny." Loki found himself repeating Stark's earlier words. For some reason Loki couldn't get the human out of his head. Whether he was trying to figure out the way in which the human's mind worked or wondering about the horrid past that the mortal had hinted at, Stark would not leave Loki alone. He would try to lie down and think of nothing, and in that nothingness Stark's face would come floating.

"I see you remain, hidden under your mask."

"I wear no mask. This is who I am, here in flesh and bone."

"Flesh and bone do not make a person human."

"But I am not human."

"You know what I mean, Loki."

"Gave up on calling me 'brother?'"

"Do you want me to address you as 'brother?'"

"Since when have you cared what I wanted?"

"Always."

Loki couldn't argue because he knew it was true. Thor had always been an ideal older brother, and that made Loki despise him all the more. But now, sitting in front of Thor, Loki could not muster up any hate. All he felt was … emptiness.

"Loki?"

"If I died would anyone care?" Loki asked absentmindedly. Something had seized him and made his insides freeze. A sudden dread and horror had filled him.

"I would." A familiar voice floated into Loki's conscious. He turned to find Stark sticking his head in through the door.

"I need you alive for my inventions." He added, winking at Loki. The mortal was mocking him. Thor was looking at Stark with a small smile.

"Sorry that I interrupted the love fest but I was just wondering, Thor, how long do the golden apples last?"

"Pardon?"

"Like … how long does their effect last?"

"A hundred years."

Stark's jaw dropped. "Ah … okay." He said as he closed the door.

"Anthony is a good man." Thor said after the said man had left the room.

Loki did not respond. In the beginning he would have disagreed with Thor. After Thor, Stark had been the Avenger that irked Loki the most. But now, his feelings towards the mortal were muddled. They weren't friendly nor were they hostile … more like indifferent. For a while, Stark was his life line and after Loki had fully recovered he would be quick to forget this momentary kindness and return to his usual feelings of hatred. But for now … the human was beginning to rub off on Loki. And all it took was a near death experience.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: ****I am trying to find a way to make the transition between Tony and Loki's relationship seem 'natural'/normal, so that's why this chapter, the chapter before this, and the next chapter is just a bunch of fluff.**

* * *

Chapter 12

"What happened to not experimenting on me?" Loki spoke as Stark pulled out a chair for him. The two men were in Stark's lab and it was late in the afternoon. Loki had been in his room watching the Midgardian news when his door had flung open.

"I got the final batch of antidotes." Stark had said. Offering no further information he had ordered Loki to come down to the lab in ten minutes or face the consequences. Knowing perfectly well that Stark wouldn't lay a finger on him, Loki had still followed. He wanted to recover. It had been a few days since his talk with Thor, but the memory of the talk still left him shaken. He felt vulnerable and more miserable than usual. Thinking that maybe if he got his strength and powers back, he would feel better, Loki followed Stark's directions without complain. And anyways, the daily headaches and pain spasms were getting annoying.

But as Loki walked down to the lab, he began to regret his decision. What he had expected to find was a vial with his medicine, not a dozen injections.

"Well, I am not experimenting on you. I'm merely seeing which antidote suits you best. Be glad. This morning there were sixty four vials, now there are only twenty four." Stark replied without taking his eyes off his tools. He was busy swirling the contents of the injections around and polishing the needles. Loki flinched when he saw how sharp and long they were.

"And I am to believe that you are not going to derive pleasure by sticking those infernal needles into my body."

Stark paused what he was doing to stare blankly at Loki.

"Dude, I am not a sadist. That's your thing," was his only remark. After making sure that all the materials he needed were ready, he turned to face Loki, a strange grin on his face.

"I feel like a doctor." He spoke menacingly.

"You look like a mad man."

A glare.

"Shut up and sit down."

"This is a plastic chair."

"Really? I thought I had set up a massage chair for you. My bad,"

Loki took in the chair for another moment before sighing and sitting down. It was very uncomfortable. He watched as Stark stretched white gloves over his hands and picked up one of the injections. Loki noticed it was labeled A-1.

"Okay, listen. I need you to work with me. No smart comebacks or anything. Just hang in there and bear with me." He said and Loki noticed a change in the mortal. No longer was the man standing before him a man of a smart mouth and a relaxed air. The man standing before him had a stiff posture that signified that that he was being serious. His eyes burned with the light of a thousand candles and behind the flames was a curious twinkle. Loki had never seen Stark like that. He was used to the lax Stark. This new side to him, the side that said "let's get down to business," made Loki's interest skyrocket. He had seen how passionate Stark was about his work, and that he was an intellectual being, but this seriousness had a different appeal.

Taking Loki's silence for an okay, Stark continued to speak, "Most of them won't hurt. Just a prick. But if it doesn't make you scream in pain it's not working." Before Loki could question him, the needle found its way to Loki's arm and he felt it puncture his skin. Loki waited for a moment or two, but nothing happened.

Stark nodded. "Magnesium is a no."

"Are you injecting me with metals?" Loki asked incredulously.

"Kind of. Don't worry they'll find their way out of your body. These injection's won't stay … well not until I find the right one." Stark said as he tossed the first injection into the trash.

"And how long will that take you?"

"I don't know Loki, I don't know. I told you to bear with me, right?"

"I have a question."

"Yes?"

"When you find a mixture that works, it will obviously first be injected. But after that, how will it be administered?"

"It'll be a liquid that you'll just drink. One bottle a day. You ready?" Stark asked as he turned back to Loki. Another injection was in his hand.

"How did you manage to concentrate the apples to a liquid form?" Loki asked instead of replying to the question.

"Juice." The other man grinned at him. Loki felt another puncture in his skin and then nothing. A groan. "I had high hopes for that one," Stark said wistfully as he threw the second injection into the trash.

The cycle repeated, each time resulting in a failure. Many times Stark stopped and muttered to himself. At random intervals he would ask Loki questions pertaining to his health at the moment, whether or not he felt the slightest bit of pain, or just about his magic. Being that he was Loki, he refused to give a straight answer and a light atmosphere had formed before the two, a new experience to Loki. Their banter was quite enjoyable.

"Second to last one," Stark informed him as he polished another needle. This time Loki stretched his arm towards Stark. Tiny prick marks ran up and down his arm. So far he had tested twenty two injections.

Loki was ready for the injection. He believed that the results would be the same as the last twenty two. He was wrong. As the needle pressed into his skin, a stab of pain shot up Loki's arm and his eye sight became blurry. His stomach formed severe craps and he doubled over, hand clutching his stomach. His arm had gone numb and once again his head was pounding.

"Hang in there, Loki." Through the pain and haze, Stark's voice reached out to him. He felt a hand on his shoulder and if he weren't in pain, Loki would have laughed. Why was the human so idiotic? Loki knew that Stark didn't care for him. He knew that they were not friends, or even close. He knew that they were just putting up with each other because they had to. Then why did the human appear to be putting in so much effort. What was the purpose? The gain? After a few dizzying pain filled moments, Loki regained his composure.

"What …" He barely managed to get out, as he choked on his own words. Stark had a glass of water at the ready.

"I told you that if it doesn't make you scream in pain it's not working. What happened was that the osmium clashed with the copernicium and the copernicium began to eat away at the osmium, which means that your blood was destroying your own blood, if that makes any sense to you."

"It does."

Stark paused in jotting the results and looked up at Loki. He stared at the god for a few minutes before smiling a smile that made Loki's stomach twist and made him very confused, and turning his attention back to his work. Loki assumed the smile was a result of Stark's shock upon hearing that his science nonsense made sense to Loki. After all, Loki had seen the way others reacted to Stark's science gears.

"Good to know. Anyways, that was the only way to get rid of the osmium, so yeah. The pain was only momentary; as I am sure you're fine now." Stark paused and waited for Loki's confirmation. Loki nodded.

"For the first couple of days when you take the medicine, it's going to hurt. But then as you continue taking it, the pain will disappear and that's how you'll know that the osmium is disappearing."

"About how long?"

"Well, I am going to make a batch of twelve with the formula I used for A-23, but I am not sure. It can be more than that or less. I don't know how much osmium was injected into you, so I can't really say."

And that's when Loki remembered something very important. "When this osmium is gone from my body I shall have my magic back?"

"Yeah, it should come back."

Loki could finally breathe in peace.

* * *

Loki was lying on his bed watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, since it was showing on ABC family. He had found the books in the pile that Potts' had brought him and despite the cliché plot, the books had interested him. Now that he had found the movies, he was planning on watching them all. A knock on his door alerted him to the arrival of Stark's assistant. By now he had her knocking pattern memorized. Stark didn't bother to knock.

"Come in." Loki's voice loafed around the room. He was beginning to embrace the fact that he couldn't act like a brat during his stay at Stark Towers, at least not if he wanted things to run smoothly.

The door opened and Pepper walked into the room, carrying a tray in her hand.

"You missed lunch."

"I was watching television."

"Harry Potter?" the woman questioned as she set the tray down on the night stand and looked towards the telly.

"Yes. Quite an interesting concept you Midgardians came up with."

"Thank you … though I think the credit goes to J. K. Rowling."

Loki watched as the screen faded to black and commercials came on.

"Watching these is tedious." He said with a drawl.

"Commercials?"

"Ceilings."

A chuckle.

"You sure lightened up."

"Being difficult is over rated."

This time Pepper laughed out right.

"I think you've been watching too much t.v."

"There is not much else to do in this place."

"Have you tried going out?"

"Stark would not let me."

"Did you ask?"

"What am I to say? 'Stark, do you want to go out?'" A moment passed when Loki realized how the words sounded. "Outside," He added, needlessly.

"Of course," Pepper replied, a grin on her face.

Loki decided to change the subject. The grin on the mortal woman's face was making him uneasy. "In the end, this, Voldemort, he dies?"

"I can't tell you that, it would ruin the story."

"I like his character."

"Voldemort?"

"Yes."

"Figures."

Silence.

"Potts,"

"Pepper,"

"Potts,"

A sigh. "Yes?"

"Stark,"

"Tony,"

"Stark," Loki began again. "How long have you worked for him?"

Pepper had half a mind to refuse to answer and instead ask why Loki was asking, but she decided against him. This was the most civil he had been with her and she wanted to savor the moment.

"It's been years." She answered.

"Are you close to him?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, we are close, but …"

"But?"

Pepper laughed slightly, a halfhearted laugh. "There's always stuff he doesn't tell me." Noticing the way Pepper's voice clouded over, Loki decided to prod more into the subject.

"Such as?"

"Is this like inventory for when you return to your evil ways?"

"Yes. I wish to black mail Stark."

"Why?"

"For my own enjoyment."

"I'll buy that," Pepper paused, debating whether or not she should tell Loki. "His arc reactor … you know how it keeps him alive?" Pepper didn't want for a response, "well in the beginning, it was also the thing that was killing Tony. It was poisoning him, and he didn't tell me, didn't tell anyone. Instead he named me his successor and went through all of it alone." A long forgotten pain laced Potts' voiced and for a moment Loki wondered exactly how good of friends the two were. But that was not what was important at the moment. Stark had also felt death's clutches. Their conversation from a few days ago flooded back to Loki and a weird feeling in his stomach appeared. Betrayal, hurt, loss, loneliness, Loki was sure that Stark was acquainted with all of Loki's dear friends.

"You know, if you think about it, the two of you aren't all that different." Pepper said, repeating what she had said to Tony.

A part of Loki agreed.

"Thank you for the food, Potts."

"Or course, Loki."

Pepper took her leave, just as the movie came on, thankfully. Loki was deprived of the time to dwell on Stark; he had to finish watching the first installment for the Harry Potter movies.


	13. Among All Things

**Among all things**

Tony was sitting in his living room watching TV and eating. It was around three o'clock, a few days after he had found a cure for Loki. The TV was on and Phineas and Ferb were building another one of their contraptions but Tony wasn't paying attention. His eyes were glazed over, his head thrown over the back of the sofa, his mind on a certain god. He was thinking of their light bantering the day he had found the antidote and how enjoyable it was. He was thinking about their conversation when Tony tried to get Loki to see that he was making a mountain out of a mole hill and how he had gotten so worked up over it. Tony tried to blame it on his curiosity and the fact that the god annoyed him but Tony knew he was just deceiving himself, that there was more to the equation. But what? Tony knew that he did not hate Loki anymore. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't. He had seen Loki in his most vulnerable state, and he had seen the broken child that Loki was sheltering and hiding. He had seen himself, in a weird twisted way, in those stunning green eyes. Even before, when he had fought his first battle against Loki, he didn't completely hate the guy. He had found his sardonic manner quite amusing and often thought that maybe in another life the two could have gotten along. But then as the attacks increased that feeling went away and one of loathing took its place.

The past few days had changed that feeling of loathing into confusion. As the days went by, Loki seemed to be coming out of his hole, all on his own. There was a change in him, and Tony didn't know what had caused it. If Tony thought about it, the change had occurred after Thor had last visited. Could it be that Loki was finally beginning to see reason? Or was it just that Loki was recovering? Or was his almost agreeable mood related to the question that he had posed Thor, "'If I died, would anyone care?"' What a morbid question to ask someone, especially your older brother. The look on Loki's face had been just as morbid as the question, as if the realization that despite the fact that he was a god, he could die too had just occurred to him. Maybe it was the shock from the osmium. Tony rubbed his head. He was confusing himself. But then again, _Loki_ was confusing. But why was Tony thinking of Loki? More confusion. Maybe after all the time that Tony had been spending with him (Loki had been overseeing Tony's work on the MC series) Loki was beginning to rub off on him. Tony shuddered at the thought. Then suddenly it him, was Loki at peace? Such as when one is at peace before they pass? Tony shook the thought from his head. What was he thinking? He had crushed the golden apples into tenths and there had been a dozen or so apples, one tenth of one in each bottle, which meant that each bottle of antidote guaranteed ten years of longevity and Loki had been taking a bottle a day for five or six days now. And on top of that Loki was a god. Then what was it? Tony had found Loki's intelligent aura appealing but that didn't mean anything. What else? Loki was fun to talk to, so what? He …understood. What did Loki understand? His scientific gibberish? Bruce did too. But when Tony imagined feeling for Bruce what he felt for Loki, it felt wrong. Why did it feel wrong? No, Loki understood. Understood what it was like to be … to be like Tony. And anyways, what did he feel for Loki? Indifference? Apathy? Wasn't that the same thing? Tony's brain was going on rampage. He decided that at the moment it was best not to think about the god. He headed down towards his lab, wondering if the god would follow some time later. Half way down the stairs, Tony paused so that he could bang his head against the wall.

* * *

Loki was sticking his head out of his bedroom window (Stark had deactivated the electric field) when a thought occurred to him. Standing still, he debated over whether or not he should go find Stark. The past few days the two had been spending an awful lot of time together. It wasn't that he didn't like Stark's company, a part of him had begun to like the other man, but it was just that the whole situation was strange. Oh well, it needs to be done, Loki thought. He had to get him magic back, preferably sooner than later, and in order for that to happen a compromise was needed. What was not part of the compromise was his actually beginning to like Stark. His intelligence, as always, was astounding and he had a mouth to match Loki's. The two could argue back and forth all day and yet it was enjoyable. And that dark cloud that hovered over Stark was much like the one surrounding Loki.

Sighing, Loki searched for the part of him that would be mocking him right now, the hate-filled part of Loki's soul. He could not find it. Ever since the day he had last seen Thor, he had been recovering, but the recovery was physical. Mentally and emotionally, Loki felt like he was deteriorating. As much as he tried to, he could not summon any hatred for anything, nor did he feel any joy, anger, or depression. He simply did not feel. After everything he had gone through, Loki had become an empty, cold shell. Maybe it was better that way?

He set out to find Stark.

* * *

Tony heard the soft tread of Loki's feet and knew that he was approaching the lab. He made no movements other than to throw a quick glance towards the door to make sure it was open. Despite Tony's muddled thought about the guy, nothing would ever make him tell Loki the security code to his lab. As of now he was working on taking apart the original MC Blaster crystal and analyzing it. He had made a spot for it in his suit and now he just needed a supply.

"Stark?"

"Yes, Loki?"

The soft tread got closer alerting Tony to Loki's arrival in his lab.

"Have you considered that you can compress that energy from the crystal by making it into a powder?"

Tony's ears perked up and he lifted his head. No, he hadn't considered that. "But then how would I form a beam out of the powder?" He asked, turning to face Loki.

"You can use it similarly to the way one uses gun powder."

"Okay, but if it's powder won't that just be the same thing as a solid crystal?"

"Not if you lessen the quantity. If I am to understand everything you have explained to me in the past few days, for your first container you used one complete strand of my magic." Loki waited for Tony to nod.

"Now if you take that one strand and cut it into tiny pieces, it would still be a complete stand of magic and would be just as strong, but wouldn't be so …"

"Explosive," Tony supplied.

"Yes," Loki paused, waiting for Tony's answer.

"The container size should be no more than two cm by two cm." he heard the other man mumble.

"Since you are wondering about the container size, I can assume that you agree?"

"It's worth a shot."

"Wonderful,"

"You think Thor will let me borrow Mjolnir?"

A smile tugged at Loki's lips. The human was looking at him with twinkling eyes, his head tilted backwards, his hair sticking up all over the place, a slight smile on his lips.

But it wasn't like Loki was looking. Not at all. In fact, Loki didn't even find the human attractive. The fact that Loki was always caught off guard by Tony's eyes and always had an urge to fix his hair, went unaccounted for. "I dare say I don't believe he will. And even if he does agree, how do you plan to lift it?"

"Good question. Then maybe I can have Thor handle the heavy lifting for his project."

"That … would not be wise."

Tony thought for a moment. Thor had a bad habit of breaking Tony's things like his TV, his dining table, the floors and roofs of his house, his pinball machine …

"I agree."

The two men were silent for a moment. Then, simultaneously, their minds clicked.

"Acid!" They both exclaimed.

Loki watched as Tony began to scribble something down and began to clear his desk.

"How do you know so much about advanced Midgardian science?" Tony asked the god suddenly. He couldn't believe the thought had just occurred to him.

"One has too much free time on their hands when they are in prison."

Tony laughed. "Ah," He replied. He turned his attention away from the way Loki's hair curled at his shoulders and looked towards the metal container in his hand.

"Hey Loki?" the human's tone of voice warned Loki that they were about to venture onto thin ice.

"Yes?" He still replied.

"Constantly going to prison must be a drag. I mean the first time, sure, why not? But after that, it must have gotten to be such a bore."

"Yes."

"Then why don't you just make up with Thor?" Tony's voice was cautious and hesitant.

Silence. Not like he'd been expecting a real answer. And then,

"Because if I 'make up' with Thor, I will lose the little sanity that I have." The voice was no longer Loki's but the voice of someone who had given up, who was at their wit's end. Something came up Tony's throat and a weird feeling seized him. Loki had been getting better and now he seemed all screwed up again. Well, since Tony had ruined the mood he should fix it.

"That doesn't make sense, Loki. You're not sane, no offense. You're mentally unstable,"

"As are you,"

"That's not the point." Tony semi laughed. "The point is that, making up with Thor will give you more security and come on, admit it, you still love him."

"Security? I am capable of providing myself security." Loki did not even address the latter of the sentence.

"You're not going to deny it?" Tony asked.

"My … standings, as of now, are all I have. I have created a me before which I was nothing. I … if I reconcile with Thor … I will have nothing."

"But Loki, you will have something. You'll have a loving, caring, family." A part of Tony wanted to tell Loki that 'his standings' weren't all Loki had as of now. Loki had him, but Tony dismissed that part of himself quite often. After all, he wasn't doing this because he liked Loki. He was doing this because … because … just because he could. And he didn't want to be there for Loki, he had enough of his own problems.

"A loving, caring, family?" Loki stretched out all the syllables. "Even when I was on the verge of death Odin refused to send the armies to Jotunheim. He said he wanted his son back but the sake of the nine realms was far more important."

Tony didn't personally know Odin, but at the moment he hated the man. He had had his own problems with his dad when he was a kid, and heck, his childhood had been miserable, all the kids used to stay away from him. He had grown up with a barrier around him because no kid at age six should have to believe that they were dead weight to their father and that they were some sort of freak. Tony had changed those emotions to pride, conceit, and indifference and they had helped him get through life. As he saw the situation, Loki had a loving family but there was a lot of that sibling rivalry. He had always been trying to live up to Thor because Thor was the one everyone loved. He had also felt alone, he had also felt like a freak. Instead of turning towards apathy, Loki had turned towards hate and spite, and that's where his destruction began.

"Well, screw Odin. What about Thor?"

"What about him?"

"He loves you."

"You think after all this destruction, that I will be welcomed back to Asgard?"

"But why does Asgard have to matter? Screw the effing world, I always say. I am talking about Thor. You're one lucky guy. But you're pushing it all away."

"And are you not?"

That caught Tony off guard.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"The Avengers and Potts? Do you not push them away?"

"No."

Even though Tony wasn't facing Loki's way, he could feel Loki's gaze on him, steady, even, and unmoving.

"No." Tony said again, even though no further question had been asked. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Why did you not tell Potts when the arc reactor was poisoning you?"

A breath escaped Tony. "I …" he tried to explain that section of his life, but it wall all too much. He swallowed.

"You consider yourself all alone. And so do I. Then why do you seem to have a problem with my isolation?"

"Because it doesn't have to be that way."

"And for you?"

"You ... it's ... I ...it's just that ..." For once, Tony couldn't come up with a remark.

"Speak, Stark."

"I suck at relationships."

Loki was taken aback. "I am not talking about your one night stan …"

"Neither am I. Let's just forget this, okay? I am sorry for asking. It's just that you're so god damned confusing!" The last part of the sentence flew out of Tony's mouth before Tony could help himself.

He heard Loki laugh.

"As are you." The god threw back.

Tony wasn't sure if he stomach should have been churning the way it did.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Now, as for the MC blaster …"

* * *

Tony was awoken by something pouncing on him. He shot out of bed, a slight scream escaping his lips. His vision cleared to find an amused Pepper standing over him, and a furry thing on his lap. Upon poking the pile of what looked like black hair, Tony was startled to see it grow a head, legs, and a tail. Two eyes blinked at him, and he found that a black cat with orangish eyes had materialized in front of him.

"McGonagall?" He asked mockingly, while trying to stifle a yawn.

"Xander." Pepper replied, her grin stretching a mile. "Not every cat you see is McGonagall."

"Am I to understand that this feline belongs to you?"

"Yes."

"And why is it on my lap?"

"Because you're going to take care of him for me."

"Why?"

"Because I am going on a business trip as your replacement."

"Oh." Tony rubbed his eyes. "Why can't you leave it at your boyfriends?" Tony watched as Pepper placed her hands on her hips.

"Because he's also out of town."

"But Pepper …"

"Tony, please?"

"When did you even get a cat?"

"Four years ago. You gave him to me for a birthday present."

Memories flooded back. "Oh, yeah. Who names their cat Xander?"

Pepper sighed. "I do. And I know you're busy with your own work and the whole Loki fiasco, but he won't be much of a bother."

Tony eyed the cat suspiciously. At the moment it was curled around Pepper's leg.

"How long?"

"Three days."

"You owe me."

Pepper laughed as she quickly pulled Tony into a hug.

"Thanks. I left a bag on the dining table with his stuff," Pepper said as she began to walk out of the room.

"You owe me!" Tony called after her.

After Pepper was out of the room, not having the courtesy to close the door, he turned to look at the cat. It was staring at him.

"Hey," He said uselessly.

The cat's response was a purr.

"Nice meeting you, I'm Tony."

Blinking eyes.

"I am your father."

Silence and more blinking eyes.

"Yeah … I went to sleep late last night … and yeah … that was stupid … but you see, this is weird … it's fricken seven in the morning, what was Pepper thinking? And yeah … I'll just … yeah." Tony threw his covers off and headed towards the washroom. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he addressed the cat,

"Stay. Don't go anywhere."

* * *

"I knew I shouldn't have left the god damned thing alone." Tony said as he stepped back into his room, a towel slung over his bare shoulders. The cat was nowhere in sight. "If that cat's somewhere it's not supposed to be, I swear I am going to strangle it." Tony muttered as he walked out of his room.

* * *

Loki had a strange feeling that something was staring at him. Turning over so that he was lying on his back he slowly opened his eyes. His room slowly came into view and he brought one of his hands in front of his mouth to cover a yawn. Hoisting himself up, Loki leaned against the back frame of the bed and the strange feeling only increased. A quick glance around the room revealed that no one was there, so what was with the strange sensation? Blaming it on his nerves, Loki sighed, threw his covers off, and swung his feet to the floor. Immediately he felt a soft brush against his feet that caused him to yelp and pull his legs back onto the bed. He noticed a flash of black zoom across the room.

"What?" Loki asked out loud. He cautiously returned his feet to the ground and stood up, stretching. His eyes were alert and moving across the room. Moving slowly, he headed for the wall sized windows, noticing a lump behind them. "Is Stark raising some rodent?" He thought. Moving the curtains back slowly, Loki was left speechless. Cuddled next to the wall was a cat. "Where'd you come from?" He asked the creature, knowing perfectly well that it wouldn't respond. The cat stared at him with its orangeish eyes. What a strange eye color, Loki thought. Those eyes must have been what he was feeling in his sleep. Bending down slowly, he reached a hand out. He watched as the lean creature moved forward slightly, its tail swinging. After a moment the cat hurried forward and placed its paws in his hand. A slight smile formed on Loki's lips and immediately slipped. Heaven's no, he was not going soft. He most definitely was not. But Loki could not help it that animals had always fascinated him.

Picking the cat up gently, Loki brought it up to face level. The cat blinked at him. "What's your name?" Loki asked tilting his head to the side.

"Xander," a voice answered and Loki jumped.

"That's a very masculine voice you have," Loki said to the cat. It was early in the morning so it took him a while to realize that there was someone else present in the room. Still holding on to Xander, Loki stood up and turned on his heel. Stark was standing in his doorway, bare from the top half of his body, a towel slung over his shoulders, and his hair dripping water. The human was smiling at him, amusement flickering in his eyes. Loki groaned. He was never going to hear the end of this.

"Stark," he said dryly.

"Good morning, sunshine." Stark replied hurriedly, eyeing the cat in Loki's hands. After a moment, "I have an awesome offer for you. That's Xander, he's a cat," the human said pointing and Loki grimaced.

"Really? I didn't quite notice." he replied.

"Yeah, and since it looks like you're fond of cats, you can take care of him."

"Stark?"

"Yes, Loki?"

"Wha …"

Stark cut him off. "He belongs to Pepper. She's out of town for a few days on a business trip, so he's going to be staying with us. Shall I put his stuff in your room?"

"No." Loki replied. He was watching the water fall from Stark's hair.

"Aw, come on!" Tony whined.

"If you were not ready to take responsibility for him, you should not have agreed to house him," Loki pulled Xander closer to his body and scratched the cat behind his ear. The cat replied with a grateful purr.

"You know, you would look like some old-fashioned villain right now, if your eyes weren't twinkling." Stark's comments brought Loki away from his thoughts.

Loki tried to force his grin down.

Stark looked scared, causing Loki raised an eyebrow at him.

"I have half a mind to ask you who are you and what have you done with Loki?"

The god chuckled. Instead of replying, he placed the cat on the ground and started to walk over to the rest room. Before entering, he turned back to face Stark.

"I don't know if you noticed, Stark, but you are dripping water on the carpet and you are half naked." With that Loki stepped into the washroom, Tony calling after him,

"You know you enjoyed the view."

Behind closed doors, Loki shook his head. Without his knowing or approval his iron wall had fallen. But … when?

* * *

It was late in the day, and Tony was exhausted. Fury had called in suddenly asking for Loki's progress and warning Tony that some SHIELD machine had picked up some weird readings and for him to stay on his guard and keep a close eye on Loki. It had become his job to round up all the Avengers and tell them the news. Steve had been a total mess with personal problems and Bruce too, was on edge. Out of duty and because he cared, Tony had let the two dump all their worries onto his shoulders. Clint had informed him that if Loki made no significant recovery in another week or so, Fury was going to lock him up in some SHIELD jailhouse (Tony should have been relieved, but he wasn't) and on top of all that Fury had also instructed him to come to SHIELD headquarters and report his progress on the MC series. Tony had been forced to go against his will. At the headquarters he had to go through tedious job of explaining what he was up to. He was told that everything and everyone was on red alert and that he was to go home and finish his invention either that night or by the following morning and report back. After leaving the headquarters, he had headed to a nearby Starbucks and bought at least a dozen packages of their coffee. After coming back, around five in the afternoon, to the tower he had gone straight to his lab and had cooped himself in there for hours. By the time he had left the lab it was nearing one in the morning and he had had fifteen cups of coffee. Thankfully, he didn't have time today to dwell on Loki, for he was sure if the god had ventured into his mind, he would have gone mad.

Now, the cups of coffee were taking their toll and Tony knew that if he headed to bed, he wouldn't be able to go to sleep. Grunting, he headed towards the living room, where he threw himself onto the couch, and turned the TV on. The first X-Men movie was showing, and he chose to leave it at that. Getting up once again he went to the kitchen to grab multiple chip bags and cans of beer. He needed to unwind. "Why is it that since Loki's been here I haven't gone out to fetch a girl?" Tony asked the empty air, once he was seated again.

Frustration had been building up in him all day. He was not Fury's errand boy. Why did he have to take charge? What was the friggen red alert for? Everything was god damned peaceful. Loki didn't have his magic back yet, he couldn't be causing problems. "But Loki's not the enemy here" a part of Tony's brain reminded him.

"Ugh," he groaned as he flung a pillow across the room. "Movie," he reminded himself.

* * *

Loki was up reading. He was leaning against the backboard of his bed, his knees pulled to his chest. One hand stroked Xander, who had kept him company while Stark had been out running his errands and was now curled besides him, and the other held the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." Stark's choice of literature really shocked him, but then as he got further in the book be began to think that Potts had placed it in Stark's library. All in all, it was an interesting book, not something Loki would usually be attracted to, but the raw portrayal of emotions was captivating. He was drawn from the world of words when a scream echoed through the halls, past his closed door, and into his room. "Stark," was Loki's only thought. He thought of getting up and checking on the human, but then he decided against it. The mortal's problems were his own, Loki need not worry.

* * *

"The human mind continues to astound me. Do they really believe in these mutants?" A smooth, silky voice dragged Tony away from his despair.

"What?" He asked, turning around. In front of him was Loki, finally dressed in Midgardian cloths. A dark green v-neck hung loosely on his body, emphasizing his eyes and face in general. Every feature, cheek bones, jaw line, chin shape, seemed to have been outlined and, oh gosh, those collar bones ... black jeans were belted at his hips and yet they still sagged a little. Tony had never before noticed how … fit? No, that wasn't the word. Good looking? He didn't find Loki good looking … okay maybe he did, but that didn't mean anything. Anyways, he had never before noticed how good looking Loki was and now that he did, he couldn't help but stare.

"What happened to you?" Tony managed to ask.

"Xander found my armor uncomfortable."

Tony's jaw dropped. "After all the pleading that Pepper and I did with you, a cat convinced you to change attire?" Loki shrugged making his shirt ripple. Tony looked away. He was not going to gawk at Loki. That was weird. Why would he want to gawk at Loki? Because he had been deprived of the presence of a woman for far too long … no he hadn't, Pepper had been there this morning … that was not what Tony meant. Tony inwardly groaned; his brain was going to explode.

"What was your question?" He asked Loki as he turned to his normal sitting position. Softly, Loki came and sat on the other end of the couch.

"I asked, if you humans really believe in the existence of mutants," He was whispering and oh gosh, that whisper was doing things to Tony that it shouldn't have. He had had too much beer.

"Well, they have us and in a way Bruce and Cap are mutants, I guess fake mutants though … the way science is advancing, I wouldn't be surprised it mutants did exist. Mind reading, like Prof-X, does seem farfetched today but times are changing." Tony spoke. This was good. He needed a distraction.

"When you said 'they have us,'"

Tony cut the god off, "The humans know we exist, Loki. It's not some super-secret project. You blew up half of NYC, that's not something you can ignore."

"I am known as the villain then?" The voice sounded amused and … glad?

"Yeah," Tony looked over to see Loki's grin. Seeing Loki smile, a true smile with all his walls down, Tony couldn't help but grin back. He felt some of his exhaustion fade away and he turned his attention back towards the TV. A soft purr alerted him to the arrival of Xander and when he looked back at Loki, Tony found the cat nestled in Loki's lap with Loki gently scratching it behind the ear. The sight before him was so strange and Tony was so tired that a chuckle escaped him.

"What was that for, Stark?"

"Nothing, it's just that you're Loki and …" He gestured to the cat in Loki's lap, "You're … that's a cat … and you seem so normal ... I don't know." he finished lamely. The two men resumed watching the movie in silence. Then after a while,

"It's so weird. Why is it that I can't call you by your last name?" Tony asked out loud. Loki turned to look at the other man with quizzical eyes.

"It's not like I want to be on a first name basis with you, I am just asking. It sounds so weird. I am always calling you Loki and you call me Stark. I guess it comes with the villain thing, huh?"

Loki chose not to respond and Tony was glad. For the last few days his mind was thinking strange things when it came to Loki, especially now with his brain running on cans of beer and cups of coffee. Add on the exhaustion and Tony might as well have told Loki that he was madly in love with him. "What?" Tony thought, amused.

Silence ensured between them again. The scene where the X-Men had just entered the Statue of Liberty came on when Tony heard a soft, amused voice say,

"Anthony."

Tony's stomach jumped and he mentally kicked himself. This was Loki, in case he had forgotten. He was not going to go all lovey dovey on Loki ... wait, he wasn't going lovey dovey on Loki in the first place. Just because he didn't know how to feel about the guy...that didn't mean anything.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Tony was placing the tiny blaster containers into his suit when Jarvis interrupted him.

"Sir, Director Fury is on the line."

"Not now, Jarvis." Tony replied. He was in no mood to talk to Fury; he needed to finish his suit.

"He says that it's urgent, sir."

"I don't care, Jarvis."

"Stark!" A voice barked at him. Cursing under his breath, Tony slammed the screwdriver in his hand on the table.

"What the hell is your problem, Fury? A day, you can't even …"

"Shut up and listen." The man cut him off. "I told you to stay on red alert, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Patrol the city in my suit?"

"Yes, Stark! Some god damned idiot opened a fricken portal in the middle of Central Park!" By now Fury was screaming. "Get your ass down there right now!"

It took Tony a moment to process what was just said to him.

"Wha … how?" He hadn't heard any sort of disturbance.

"If I knew, Stark, I wouldn't be talking to you. Get down there, contain the enemy, and close the god damned portal!"

"What about the others?" Tony asked as he quickly began to suit up.

"Already at the scene." And with that Fury hung up.

"Jarvis, where's Loki?" Tony asked as he pulled his mask over his face. Loki couldn't have opened the portal, he reassured himself.

"In his room with Xander. He is currently watching television."

"Make sure he doesn't hear about this."

* * *

"Steve, where are you?" Tony spoke into his earpiece. He was hovering above Central Park, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of a fight.

"I …" Steve began but was immediately interrupted by a loud crash … or well, it sounded like something had crashed. Tony watched as a huge cloud of black smoke rose to the air.

"Never mind, found you." He said as he kicked his rockets on. "What's the situation?"

Clint replied. "Those weird skeletal things, Draugs or whatever, dozens upon dozens of them are swarming into Central Park; someone opened a portal."

Something struck Tony. "Fire and decapitation!" He said.

"What?" Natasha and Clint replied in union.

"Draugs … in Norse myths, their only weaknesses are fire and decapitation." Tony explained as he spotted Steve. The poor guy was surrounded by five undead soldiers and they were cornering him. By the look of terror on his face Tony could only imagine what Steve was seeing in his head.

"Use your god damned shield, Steve." Tony yelled at the man as he used one of his lasers to burn a line between the monsters and his friend. Tony watched as the Draugs howled and moved back. Bingo.

Steve looked up surprised and upon seeing Tony, smiled.

"It's about time you showed up." He said as he regained his sense and threw his shield as the Draugs. His shield hit one right at its neck and the monsters head fell off, the rest of his body following. A puff of dust was left where the pile of bones had been. Steve grimaced. By this time, the Draugs had turned their attention to Tony.

"What the hell?" Clint's voice reached Tony.

"What happened?" Natasha asked.

"They've stopped moving."

"That's 'cuz they're too busy staring at me." Tony injected.

"You are Tony Stark," one of them spoke.

"Nice to meet you," Tony replied, floating back a little.

"You were responsible for the death of our emperor!" Suddenly, Tony felt himself being thrust up into the air, a Draug materializing in front of him, its bony hands around Tony's neck.

"TONY!" He heard Steve scream.

"Focus on your own problems, Cap." Tony managed to say through gritted teeth as a loud bang informed him that fighting had resumed on the ground.

Tony grunted as he struggled against the Draug's hold. For a skeleton, it was pretty strong. Up, up, up they went, the wind rushing in Tony's ears through the mask. A sudden jolt informed him that they had stopped. They were at least thirty miles up in the air. Tony's screen was going haywire and he watched in horror as a skeletal hand yanked his mark off. His eyes followed the mask on its trip to the ground.

"What … the … hell?" he managed to choke out.

"You, Tony Stark, ruined all of our plans." The voice sent a chill down Tony's spine and for the first time, in a long time, terror bubbled in Tony's chest. He choked as the grip around his neck got tighter.

"It …" He gave up on trying to speak.

"We would have been ruling Asgard at the moment, if it weren't you for." Breathing became difficult. Tony felt his eyes roll back and he tried aiming his kicks higher.

"Tony!" Steve's voice reached him through the ear piece. He couldn't reply. "Clint managed to contain the Draugs in a ring of fire or something. Anyways, the threat's been neutralized. Bruce and Natasha are working on the portal. Can anyone here fly?"

Tony would have answered with some sarcastic remark if he wasn't suffocating. He knew Steve was trying to calm him down, but Tony wasn't the least bit reassured.

"Stark!" Fury's voice reached. He was on the verge of suffocating and dying and this guy was here to give him orders. "Use the god damned MC Blaster."

As if Tony hadn't thought about that. First of all, he was in the middle of Central Park and if he used the blaster everything within a thirty mile radius would be blown to pieces. Second of all, the only part of his body that he could move was his legs. Water formed in Tony's eyes. Damn it all.

"Stark!" Fury continued to bark.

It took him a while, but at that moment Tony remembered that he had rockets in his feet.

Kicking them on, Tony swung his feet up in the air all the while trying to remove the Draugs fingers from his neck. By now the metal was jabbing into his skin. The heat from the rockets startled the skeleton and it pulled back, screeching. Pleased, Tony was about to show that Draug just what Tony was made up when the engines powering his suit decided that that was the best moment to die out.

"Jarvis!" Tony was able to shout before he began to plummet towards the ground. This was seriously getting old.

"Systems have been sabotaged, sir. I can not wire them up again."

The last thing Tony saw before he was out cold was the Draug's face.

* * *

He was surrounded by darkness. "You think you can escape us, Tony Stark?" Tony knew that he should know who the voice belonged to, but he could not place it. He spun around but all he could see was darkness.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"You do not know?" The voice changed. This time Tony could place the voice and as soon as it clicked, dread filled Tony's very soul.

He watched in horror as Loki took form in front of him.


	15. Searching

Searching

"Loki?" Tony asked in disbelief.

"Surprised, Stark?" Loki raised his eyebrows. A bone chilling silence ensured between the two and Loki grinned, exposing a row of pearly white teeth. "What? Had you grown to trust me?" Loki's laugh filled Tony with a strange type of cold. That laugh … was not Loki's. At least not the Loki he had gotten to know. It couldn't be Loki. He's standing right in front of you, you douche, Tony's brain said to him.

"You foolish mortal, I am the god of lies and trickery. I didn't expect you to be so daft as to have fallen prey to my tactics."

Rage bubbled in Tony's chest because as much as he wanted to deny it, he knew Loki was right. A part of Tony had begun to trust the god. "You son of a …"

Loki laughed and as he laughed his form rippled and he grew shorter and sprouted red hair. Pepper materialized in front of him.

"So now you're going to play games with me?" Tony growled.

"What are you talking about, Tony? It's me Pepper." The voice was an exact replica of Pepper's.

"Cut it out Loki."

"Tony, Loki's in his room."

"Pepper wouldn't know that; Pepper's on a business trip."

The Pepper standing in front of him grew red. "Yeah, she's out on a business trip on a Sunday when she could have been out having fun and relaxing. Why do you always put all the stress on me? You lock yourself in your lab and leave me to do all the work! I didn't sign up to be your dancing monkey! I'm sick and tired of it! You think you're so high and mighty? I trusted you, Tony. And then you just left me on our anniversary … all alone. You never ca …" Pepper's words faltered and tears came to her eyes. Tony stood rooted to the floor, his eyes wide.

"You're not Loki." He said slowly. Loki couldn't know about the anniversary mishap.

"For a super genius that sure took you some time."

"And you're not Pepper either."

The fake Pepper grinned at him. "You're right, I am not." Once again the thing in front of him changed form and there was Steve.

"Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, huh?" Steve's voice … no, this wasn't Steve, Tony told himself, was dripping with sarcasm.

"And even with that you're all alone. It's all a cover up isn't it? A cover up for your dried up heart. Even your own father didn't love you. I was his hero, not you. You could never live up to me. You tried so hard to be a hero. 'I'm Iron Man,' you think that that could erase the blood you have on your hands? Your weapons killed millions. You deserve to die a slow death and then rot in hell for the rest of your life."

"Ste …" Tony choked on his words. He knew that it wasn't really Steve standing in front of him in the darkness; he knew that his mind was playing a trick on him … but the words still hurt. Steve laughed and suddenly was replaced by Bruce.

"Bruce," Tony's voice was on the verge of cracking. He could handle Loki, he still didn't know why Loki had appeared first, Pepper had been scarring because he knew it was true, Steve …well, that was also true. Despite all that, he knew that whatever Bruce would have to say would hurt the most.

"The arc reactor's keeping you alive? A privileged burden?" Bruce nodded. "The other guy saved my life," more nodding. "For what? So that I could rot? So that I can see myself destroy everything I cared for? So that I could tear apart my life with my own hands?" Pain welled in Bruce's eyes and Tony felt his heart break. "You think you understand, Tony? You don't know anything. You can't. You … that arc reactor ... it's given you so much. What have I gotten? You think that you can reach out to me? What are you trying to prove? That the all mighty Tony Stark has a heart? You don't Tony. You're just a dried up bag of shit."

Tony's own words came back to him in Bruce's voice. He remembered the time when he and Bruce sat atop of Stark Towers and Tony had called himself a bag of shit. It was the day after Pepper broke up with him. It was a few days after he and Steve had a huge fight. His world had been falling apart and in that chaos he had found Bruce. And now he had that very Bruce, that pillar which he could always lean on, taunting him, mocking him. What hurt Tony the most was the pain in Bruce's eyes as he spoke of himself and the Hulk. That pain … Bruce was right, Tony could never understand. He had failed his friend, failed him terribly.

Tony's legs turned to jelly and he fell to his knees. Loki, Pepper, Steve and Bruce all materialized in front of him and behind them was a sea of faceless people. Next to Bruce, to Tony's great horror, was his father, a stern disapproving look on his face.

"Look at all the people you killed." Steve said, malice lacing his voice.

"You thought that just because you saved me that I would grow to like you?" Loki sneered at him.

"You don't have a heart," Bruce and Pepper echoed each other.

Laughter resounded through the darkness; a laughter that shook his soul and vibrated in his skull. Cold; a cold that seeped through his bones and left him frozen. The darkness was closing in on him and Tony began to choke. Covering his mouth with his hand he felt something slimy and wet. Moving his hand back he stared with wide eyes as he saw that it was covered in blood. A loud banging sound caused Tony to snap his head up, his hand covering his mouth to keep the blood from spilling.

He watched as a large piece of the blackness fell to the ground and shattered. Was his mind breaking? That wasn't possible. What was going on?

* * *

"He's waking up." This time Tony didn't recognize the voice but it sounded like a child.

"Hush, Elie." This voice Tony recognized. Was he being held captive by the Draugs? He struggled to open his eyes.

"He awakes," When he finally managed to open his eyes, Tony came face to face with a dozen or so undead soldiers. A groan escaped his lips as he saw that his suit lay in shreds in a corner.

"Where am I?" He managed to croak. He was tied to some sort of bed thing.

"You really do not know?" One of the Draugs replied.

Tony looked around and immediately recognized the place. How could he forget? They were in the same cave where he had been held hostage during the war in the Middle East.

"I half expected to have been in Jotunheim,"

"Jotunheim has fallen apart."

"What?" Tony looked back at the skeleton, careful to avoid its eyes.

"Jotunheim is now a pile of rubble and nothing more."

"And the Frost Giants?"

"Is this concern connected to Loki?"

A low blow.

"No, this has nothing to do with Loki. Loki's not even a technically a Frost Giant. What was that whole weird dream about anyway? I'm just asking … you know, filing away info." It had taken him a while, but Tony's armor was back up. Not his metal suit, but the armor that always surrounded him.

A deep earthy sound filled the cave and Tony assumed that the Draug was laughing.

"What is your worst fear, Tony Stark?"

Tony struggled against the ropes that were around his wrists, "My worst fear? ... that somehow all the lovely ladies that I've been with will band together and come looking for me." He shot a smile as the skeletons. The main one, the one who had been strangling him, shook his head.

"Your worst fear, Tony Stark, is to be left alone. To be betrayed by the ones you love. Your worst fear is to be hurt, to be tossed away by those you care about. I thought that it was intriguing that Loki should be in that list of people whom you care for and adore and therefore he was the first to appear for you."

Tony should probably have been scared out of his mind, but he wasn't.

"Uh … sorry, but I don't love Loki. I appreciate the female body too much for that. I mean, sure, a guy here and there is fine, but love? No thanks. Not my thing. Never was. I don't care for him, either. Sure I am being nice to him and I do feel sorry for the guy, I don't hate him but that doesn't mean that I care for him or love him." Tony made a face as he said the word.

"A man of science that does not understand the way ones brain works …" the Draug let the sentence hang.

"Well, I do understand the way my brain works and that's why I am telling you that I do not love or remotely care for Loki."

"Then if I were to send my armies to your tower to capture him and kill him, you would not interfere?"

Something twisted in Tony's body and he was at a loss for words. Just because he wasn't in love with Loki that didn't mean that they could kill him. Okay, well in that case, maybe Tony did care for the god.

"Okay, so maybe I care, but I don't love him. And I can so see you raising an eyebrow and smirking at me right now … well that was if you had an eyebrow. But hey, I'm sure I'm not here so we can discuss how I feel about Loki."

"You are right; you are here for that," a skeletal finger pointed at Tony's arc reactor, and Tony looked down at his chest.

"What?" He cried upon seeing the popping veins and greenish blue tint of skin.

"Osmium does not mix well with the arc reactor."

Rage bubbled in Tony's chest.

"No, seriously?" was all he managed to say.

"Do not worry, Tony Stark. The effects are only temporary. They will wear off. The amount of osmium will not kill you as it would have Loki. He should be grateful that you were able to solve his problem."

"It may not kill me, but … but …" Tony sputtered.

"It will leave you weak and ill. But you will recover. You will not need an antidote."

Tony swallowed.

"How long am I going to stay here?"

"As long as I feel like keeping you here,"

Tony gritted his teeth and forced himself to keep his temper in line.

"At least tell me you have board games around here."

* * *

"Excuse me," Pepper said to the woman she was talking to. Getting up from her seat at the restaurant table, she headed outside, opening up her ringing cell phone.

"Hey Steve," she spoke into the phone.

"Pepper," Steve sounded exhausted, broken, and depressed.

"Steve? What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"Pepper … T … To ..." Captain's voice faltered.

"Tony?" the woman's voice rose.

"Give it here, Steve." Pepper heard Natasha say to man. "Hey Pepper," she greeted her.

"Natasha, what happened to Tony?"

"We don't know. There was a swarm of aliens in Central Park and then when Tony arrived, they, well their leader, attacked him and then his suit malfunctioned or something and he was falling and we were trying to get up in the air … but when we looked back … he was gone. So were the Draugs … we don't know what happened."

"What?" Pepper choked out. "What … how can you … what do you mean you don't know what happened?" Pepper brought her hand to her forehead and let out a noise that was somewhere between a cough and a laugh.

"We … just don't know. Bruce is working on locating him and … how fast can you come back?"

"I'll leave right now."

* * *

"How's it coming along, Bruce?" Steve walked into Tony's lab and leaned against a wall. Bruce looked over to his friend. Steve's eyes were shining with worry and his forehead was creased.

"I don't know. Jarvis is running scans and I'm trying to figure this out," Bruce helplessly gestured towards the complicated world map that was floating near Tony's desk.

"What's that?"

"I wish I knew."

Steve sighed.

"Steve," Bruce's voice was stern.

"Yeah?" Cap replied, not looking at Bruce. They both knew where this was going.

"It's not your fault. There was no way for us to get up into the air, and even if we did we wouldn't have been a match for that Draug. We had enough trouble containing them on the ground. If you want to blame someone, blame us all. I want him back just as much as you."

"You think their keeping him in Jotunheim?" Steve completely ignored Bruce. It was clear to him that Steve was not going to listen any time soon.

"Jarvis?" Bruce turned to the computer butler.

"I can not find a match anywhere in the five boroughs or neighboring counties. Jotunheim is a plausible guess, but I doubt it."

"Why?" both men asked.

"I do not believe that the Draugs themselves opened a portal. Someone had to open it for them –"

"Loki." Steve cut Jarvis off. Suddenly all the worry was gone from his face. "I bet it was Loki. He has to know where Tony is," as Steve turned to head up the stairs, Bruce grabbed him by the arm. "Wait," his face seemed to be saying.

"But, Bruce …"

"You don't know that it was Loki."

"Who else couldv ..."

"I don't know, but I do know that Loki doesn't have the strength or ability to pull a stunt like this right now. And anyways, didn't you see how he reacted when we came here without Tony? He looked so …" Bruce trailed off. He still couldn't understand the look on Loki's face when they had told him what had happened to Tony.

"He's the god of lies and trickery for gods sake!" Steve was not giving up.

"Mr. Bruce is right. It is not Loki. If it were I would have noticed."

Steve sighed. "Then who?"

"Wouldn't we all like to know, Mr. Rogers?"

"I love how Jarvis calls you Mr. Bruce and me Mr. Rogers." Steve mumbled.

"He used to call you Steve, but after you had that fight with Tony, Tony would spend hours in his lab cursing you out by your last name, so I guess Jarvis picked it up."

"That would be accurate, sir."

Bruce laughed and then turning to face Steve, his smile fell. Steve looked more upset and disturbed then before, if that was possible. Why did he have to remind Steve of the fight? Bruce knew that it probably only made him feel worse even if it had happened weeks ago.

"How about this, you go up and see how far Nat and Clint have gotten. Maybe if we can't find him, SHIELD can." Bruce fixed his gaze on Cap.

A moment of silence ensured between the two and then Steve sighed.

"Call me as soon as you find anything."

"Of course." Bruce waited until he couldn't hear Cap's footsteps anymore and then, "Jarvis, how far can your scanners go?"

* * *

It was later that day and everyone had joined Bruce in the lab, Pepper being among them. He was describing possible points where Tony could be; they ranged everywhere from a temple in Kyoto, Japan to points in the Middle East to Los Angeles.

"It's going to take us days …" Steve said, his voice barely a whisper, when he saw the map.

"I know, but there's nothing else we can do." Bruce replied.

"If we get other agents to scout different locations, we can all …" Clint was cut off by Jarvis.

"Ms. Pepper, Director Fury is at the door."

Pepper's jaw dropped a little. "What does he want?"

"He's mumbling something about Loki being a sly little bastard."

Pepper groaned. "Turn him away, Jarvis."

"Pepper?" Everyone turned to look at her with questioning eyes, all except for Bruce, who turned his attention back to the map.

"It wasn't Loki."

"You weren't even here, how can you be so sure?" Natasha asked. She had thought about Loki too, but something about his expression when they had told him what happened to Tony made her rethink her judgment.

"I just do. It wasn't Loki." Pepper was adamant.

"He says to open the door or he's going to break it down." Jarvis interrupted the conversation.

Pepper scrunched her face. She couldn't let Fury take Loki. She didn't know why, but a part of her was telling her that Tony would have turned Fury away and that she should keep the god safe.

"Jarvis, I'll be right there. Don't open the lock."

The Avengers watched as Pepper walked out of the lab.

"Should we go with her?" Clint asked.

* * *

"Hey Mr. Fury," Pepper opened the door slightly. Upon seeing the group of SHIELD officers with Fury, her heart fell.

"Ms. Potts," Fury replied. "I am afraid that if you don't open the door and allow my men and me in, we're going to have to force the door open."

"Uh … the door's open." Pepper tried. By the poker face Fury was giving her, she had failed.

"I am touched that you care so much about Tony that you came here with his whole group to help us look for him, but I think the rest of the Avengers can take care of it themselves." Pepper began to slowly close the door.

"I'm here to collect Loki." Fury replied, pushing the door open with enough force that Pepper was knocked aside.

"Ah … you see about that ..." Fury cut Pepper off with a glare.

"Ms. Potts, it's best that you don't interfere."

* * *

So they had finally come. Loki had been watching the whole thing from his window. He had expected Fury to barge in the second the Avengers had told him that someone had opened a portal and let the Draugs through. But Fury had taken his time. Now, he sat on his bed, one hand petting Xander, waiting. He could not put up a fight in the state he was in nor was he planning on resisting. The Draugs had taken Tony and if going with Fury would help Fury direct his attention to the effort on finding Tony … well then maybe it was worth it. Loki had contemplated this question for quite a while. Was his sacrifice worth it? And in the end his answer had been maybe, so he had decided to go with the flow. Why waste energy trying to avoid the inevitable?

In a few short seconds of time, Loki's door was banged open and he made a face as Xander screeched. Did they really need to be so noisy? A dozen or so men in suits came into his room, followed by Fury and a helpless looking Pepper. Somewhere behind her, he could see the shadows of the other Avengers.

"Loki, as of now you are under arrest."

"Took you long enough, Fury." Loki said as he got up and straightened his cloths. "Pepper, your cat has made my stay here quite enjoyable." He told the woman, just to see the reaction. He found great amusement in the way Fury's jaw dropped. "Do you have handcuffs?" He asked Fury.

"Yeah." The Director was fazed. Loki held his wrists out. "You know, when Stark comes back, he's going to be really pissed about his door."

* * *

Weeks passed, half the points on the map had disappeared, and the Avengers and Pepper along with SHIELD still hadn't found Tony. They had searched all the possible points in the western hemisphere and hope was dropping at a fast pace. Most tense and worried were Pepper and Steve.

"Where could he be?" Steve spoke through gritted teeth as he furiously paced through Tony's living room.

"We should move onto Europe," Clint spoke from his spot.

"It's been weeks, Clint, weeks."

"Well, they're holding him hostage, it's not like they're going to send us a post card, 'TONY'S SAFE!'" Natasha replied.

"Do you think …" Steve began slowly.

"No!" Both Pepper and Bruce replied. Pepper was furiously shaking her head.

"No. They can't … he won't … he's not …" she couldn't complete her sentence.

"How's the interrogation with Loki coming along?" Bruce changed the subject.

"No progress. He's denying it and he says the he has no clue as to who it could have been or where Tony is." Clint replied.

"Of course he has no idea; he's innocent." Pepper commented.

The only response she got was shrugging shoulders. She sighed.

"Does anyone want to eat?" she asked.

"Pepper, how could you thin ..." Steve began.

"How can I think of food at a time like this? Simple, I want to have enough energy to go searching for Tony."

After a few moments of silence the word "okay" echoed through the room.

"We're out of food here, so I am going to go out and get some."

"Should someone come with you?" Bruce asked her as she turned away.

"It's okay."

Pepper quickly gathered her purse and headed towards the door.

"I think we sh …" Steve never got to finish his sentence because at that very moment they all heard Pepper scream.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Pepper's scream echoed in Steve's skull as he ran down the stairs. The sound of pounding feet surrounded him as all of the Avengers were running down the stairs alongside him, heading for the front entrance. Steve's only thought at the moment was that he couldn't let anything happen to Pepper.

"Pepper? What happened?" Steve yelled as he skidded to a stop and noticed the open front door. He saw the woman kneeling on the ground and he rushed over to her. When he saw what had made her scream, his steps fell short and his mouth slightly dropped open.

"What happened?" The others made their entrance.

"Oh gosh," Steve heard Natasha gasp. He swallowed.

"Bruce help me lift him, we'll take Tony to the hospital. Natasha you take care of Pepper and Clint you contact SHIELD." He ordered as he walked over to where his friend was lying. Tony's face and body were bruised and a small puddle of blood surrounded his head. His shirt was ripped open to expose a bluish green chest. The arc reactor was flickering.

"Also Clint, while Bruce and I take Tony to the hospital, you go look for a spare arc reactor and bring it with you." Steve didn't know much about the thing lodged in Tony's chest, but he knew that it wasn't supposed to be flickering the way it was.

Clint nodded in affirmation as Steve and Bruce hoisted Tony up, placing his arms on their backs. Natasha moved towards Pepper and whispered something in her ear. In a moments time, sense came back to her and Pepper got up.

"I'll come with you to the hospital."

Steve nodded as he and Bruce followed Pepper to her car.

* * *

"How is he, doctor?" Steve asked when he saw the white double doors open. Tony was currently in the ICU.

"His head suffered a minor injury and the formula from SHIELD is eating away at the osmium. Now all we have to do is wait for the formula to finish its job and then we can replace the arc reactor."

"Wait? How long?" Pepper asked from her position on one of the chairs lined up against the wall.

"Only time can tell. But I assure you, there is no major damage. The only threat, the osmium, has been nullified … or will be. His head injury will also heal. Other than that, his body just has to recover from exhaustion and loss of blood. Now if you'll excuse me," The three friends watched the doctor walk away, his shoes clicking against the floor.

"Well, at least we can relax now." Bruce supplied once the doctor was out of sight.

"I can't. Not until I see him awake and well." Steve replied, Pepper nodding.

"Say, Pepper. Doesn't this happen often?"

"He comes home beaten up a lot, but … he was being held captive, Bruce. And this is different from his time in the Middle East."

"I wonder why they let him go."

"Me too," Steve agreed. He too had thought that. What was the point of holding Tony captive and then letting him go?

"Well, I guess we can ask Tony when he wakes up."

* * *

Three days past and in the course of those three days Tony had established a stable condition, had had his arc reactor replaced, and had been moved into a regular room. Pepper was now sitting on the stool next to Tony's bed with Steve and Bruce leaning against the walls. The room was completely silent so when Bruce heard a groan, he thought he was mistaken. But the second time he heard it, he knew it was not in his head. Steve and Pepper were looking towards Tony, who was moving his head from side to side.

"He's waking up." Bruce announced uselessly.

"Yeah …" Steve breathed.

"Tony?" Pepper asked reaching a hand out and pushing his hair back.

More groaning.

"Should we call the doctor?" Steve asked.

"Wh ..." The three watched as Tony squinted his eyes.

"Is he in pain?" Pepper questioned.

"I'm going to go find the doctor." Steve replied.

In the moment that followed, just as Steve was about to leave the room to go look for the doctor, Tony shot up from the bed, startling Pepper. She let out a little yelp.

"Where am I?" Tony asked looking around with wild eyes. Steve stood frozen at the door. This … this was not Tony.

"Where am I?" he asked as he turned towards Pepper. Distrust was evident in his eyes.

"In the hospital. Tony, are you feeling alright?"

Steve watched as Tony's tense shoulders relaxed and he slumped back into bed. For a split second relief covered his face, but then that split second was gone and he tensed again.

"You're not really Pepper, are you? I am seeing things again." He reached down to his jeans pocket, except he wasn't wearing his jeans. He was in hospital gowns.

"Tony, what are you talking about? It's me, Pepper. Do you have a fever?" Pepper reached a hand out and touched Tony's forehead, moving her hand down to his cheek and the crook of his neck.

"You don't have a temperature." She muttered.

Shock was written all over Tony's face.

"This is for real?" It was more of a question than a statement.

"Yeah," Pepper replied even though she didn't know what was going on. Bruce threw Steve a questioning glance.

"Oh," Tony broke out laughing. "For a second I thought …" more laughing. "It's good to see you again, Pepper." The man exclaimed as he embraced the woman.

"… Yeah," Pepper didn't quite know what to say. After releasing her, Tony noticed Steve and Bruce. A look of hurt passed through his eyes, but it was gone so soon that Steve thought he had imagined it.

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked him.

"… Fine, I'm fine now." Tony grinned at him. "It's good to see the both of you again. But where are Clint, Natasha, and Thor?"

"Clint and Natasha are at Stark Towers, they dropped by in the morning. Thor … we never called him back from Asgard." Bruce replied.

"Oh, so Clint and Tasha have been handling Loki?" Tony didn't ask because he cared, he was just curious. 'I wonder how long that excuse will work.' A part of his brain said to him.

Silence filled the room.

"Tony …" Pepper began, "Fury came and took Loki away." She pursed her lips as Tony scrunched his eyebrows.

"Oh well, I expected as much. Take me there."

"What?" Three voices spoke simultaneously.

"Tony, you just woke up; you need to rest. You can't go waltzing into SHIELD." Steve spoke.

"I will rest, but in my own house and in my own bed. You know how much I despise hospitals. And I am not going to waltz into SHIELD headquarters. I am going to be walking. Seriously Steve, who do you know that still does the waltz?"

"Tony, Steve is right. You can always bail out Loki later." Bruce tried to reason his friend.

"If I am to understand correctly, it's been weeks since the attack happened. I don't know how long I've been in the hospital, but I can guess that it's been a while. If Fury came to get Loki a few days after the attack, then Loki's spent a great amount of time in custody?"

"Why do you care so much about Loki all the sudden?" Steve asked frustrated. He wasn't expecting an answer.

Tony stared at his friend for a moment. "One because he's innocent; two because I have a few questions I need to ask him."

"And these questions, they can't wait?"

"No, Bruce, no they can't. For the sake of my sanity, get me out of here."

"What type of questions exactly …" Steve stopped when he saw the look Tony was giving him.

"You know your puppy dog eyes need some work." He sighed.

"That's why I see you caving in." Tony replied. He swung his legs over the bed and then turned towards Pepper.

"Where are my clothes?"

"I'll get them for you." Pepper shot a defeated look towards Steve, not that she had done much to stop Tony. If he wanted to go after Loki, Pepper felt that he should be able to.

"Bruce, will you get my discharge papers?"

"And what makes you think the doctor will agree."

Tony shot the man a blank stare.

"I am Tony Stark." He said as if that explained everything.

* * *

Sure enough a few minutes later Steve, Tony, Bruce, and Pepper had all gotten into Pepper's car.

"SHIELD headquarters?" She asked.

"Yeah," Tony replied distractedly, staring out the window.

"What exactly happened to you?" Steve asked from his spot in the back seat.

* * *

"Okay, Loki. I am going to ask you this one last time," Fury spoke from his spot across from the metal table.

"You've been repeating that same line for the past week. Your last time is never really your last time." Loki threw back. After the first two days of being stuck in SHIELD headquarters, he had begun to regret his decision. Apparently, it hadn't been worth it since Fury had not focused on finding Tony and as far as he knew, no progress had been made on that front.

"Loki," Fury growled.

"Yes, Fury, I can growl your name too."

A sigh.

"Why don't you just tell me where Tony is? This is getting a little tedious,"

"You just realized that, did you? Well, you see Fury, I would love to tell you Stark's whereabouts but I can't; I don't know where he is."

"Then who could have opened the portal?"

"I wish I knew that too. Because if I did, I wouldn't be here right now; I would be out killing him in the most horrid way for the pain and torture that he has inflicted upon me."

A part of him was going to say Tony, but Loki was had always been Loki's first priority and he was not going to let that change.

* * *

"That's what I call waltzing," Steve said to Tony as he walked after the man.

"Obviously you've never been to one of Bon DeClaire's parties." Tony pulled open the door and held it open, waiting for Steve to catch up.

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Steve replied, taking the door from Tony.

"No." Tony threw over his shoulder as he walked into the building.

Shaking his head, Steve followed, looking back once to wave at Pepper and Bruce who were going to wait in the car.

* * *

"Mr. Stark?" A secretary at the desk asked.

"Why hello John," Tony greeted him.

"My name's James, sir." The secretary weakly smiled.

Steve came up from behind Tony and nodded at James in greeting.

"James, my good man, can you direct me to where Fury is holding Loki?" Tony asked looking around the hall.

"I am sorry, sir. Directo ..."

Tony cut him off. "I just woke up from being unconscious for god knows how long. You do not want to get on my bad side. I am quite cranky after I wake up."

A look of horror passed on James' face and he looked to Steve. Captain America just shrugged in reply. What else could he do?

"He's in room 1190, down that hall." James pointed out the way.

"Thank you, Joshua." Tony replied before sprinting in the direction that James had pointed out, Steve following closely behind.

Once James was out of sight, Tony turned to Steve.

"New guy?"

"Yeah."

"No wonder." The sound of Tony's laughter echoed through the halls.

* * *

"You know I can take your antidote away from you and wait for the osmium to kill you?"

"That's an empty threat. And even if you were to, the number of vials that I've had to this date assures me some hundred years of longevity. So by all means, go ahead."

Fury looked at Loki with narrowed eyes.

"Can I return to my cell, now?"

"Not yet, I still have some ..." Fury's sentence was cut short by the door banging open. Loki twisted in his seat to face the door and his eyes went wide when he saw who had just entered.

"Fury, how I've missed you!" Tony's voice filled the room.

"Stark? When … how'd you find him?" The director turned to Steve, who was standing behind Tony.

"We found him lying on the door step of Stark Tower."

"What?"

"Long story,"

Through this exchange, Tony refused to look at Loki. He didn't know why, but he couldn't bring his eyes to face him.

"So why are you here, Stark?"

"Because Loki is my prisoner and you stole him from me in my absence."

Fury raised an eyebrow at Tony, but said nothing.

"Fury, I don't know if you know this, so I'll let you in on a secret." Tony took a step forward and leaned in. "Loki's innocent," He whispered.

"And you know this because?"

"Hey, I was the one being held hostage. If I don't know who my capturer was, then who would?"

"I am not interested in your capturer. I know that you were being held hostage by the Draugs. What I want to know is who opened the portal?"

"It wasn't Loki."

"And you know this how?"

"Is that like your catch phrase for the day? And you know this because? And you know this how? I know this because if it was Loki, Jarvis would have picked it up and alerted me."

"I can't let him go."

"Have you ever thought that this might just be exactly what the real enemy wants you to do. He might be using Loki as a distraction. He might have known that Thor would go rescue his brother and that he would house him on earth. I bet the enemy figured that you would get your hands on Loki somehow and that you would be so occupied with him that you wouldn't even notice."

"And who do you propose is this enemy?"

"A chemist. Possibly and alien chemist, though the probability of that is slim. Who likes caves. And who has files on all of us. And he likes mazes and elaborate traps."

"What?"

"I had a great amount of time while they were holding me hostage, so I rethought Sherlock Holmes deductive reasoning theory."

Fury nodded slowly, as if that explained everything. Behind him, Steve muffled a laugh.

"I still can't let him go."

"Why?"

Fury pursed his lips.

"Don't have a good reason, do you?"

"What about his past offenses?"

"What about them? He's already served time in prison for them."

"He killed people."

"Does that mean you're planning on killing him?"

Whatever response Fury had was lost on him and in the silence Tony found his answer.

"Killing people to prove that killing is wrong."

"I am not trying to prove that killing is wrong,"

"Then?"

No answer.

"Let him come with me."

"And what will you do if he goes with you?"

"Lighten the burden on your shoulders. Anyways, you need to work on tracking this other guy,"

"We have nowhere to begin."

"Then I'll give you somewhere to begin. You remember that place where I was being held hostage in the Middle East?"

Fury nodded.

"Go look there."

"Why?"

"Because that's where the Draugs were holding me."

He heard Steve's sharp intake of breath and saw Fury narrow his eye. He could also feel Loki's gaze on him, but Tony still couldn't look that way.

"I'll dispatch the forces. Take him." Fury said after a moments of silence. Without waiting for a reply he walked out of the room.

"You heard him, Loki. Come on." Tony said as he turned to leave.

By the time Tony got to the front entrance, his head was spinning and his vision blurring. 'A few more steps and you'll be at the car,' he told himself. Yet, this self-motivation did little to help. Tony felt his knees turn to jelly and the last thing he remembered from before he blacked out was Steve's voice asking him if he was okay.

* * *

"Loki?" Loki jerked his head up to see Tony staring at him.

"You're awake," He half breathed; immediately regretting the tenderness of his voice.

"No shit, Sherlock." Tony's voice was coming out as a croak and he still managed to provide a sarcastic remark. Loki's lips pull into a half way smirk as he fought the feeling that had formed in his stomach.

"Why are you here Loki?" It's not that Tony minded. He was just curious. It wasn't like him and Loki were good friends.

"Is that really the first question you want to ask?"

Tony thought for a moment. "No. What happened?"

"You fainted. Rogers caught you, carried you to the car, and Pepper drove us all home. You've been sleeping for almost a day now. You developed a very high fever but the worst of it has passed."

Tony nodded. "Okay, so why are you surrounding my sick bed and not Pepper or Steve or someone?"

"I am merely returning a favor." Loki answered and yet he knew that there was more to it than that.

"You know I am not crucially injured,"

"You may not be dying from an injury, but you need to rest." A moment of silence. "Loki?"

"Yes?"

"I'm starving."

Loki looked at the man on the bed, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Pepper should be bringing in soup in a moment."

"Soup?"

"Yes."

The other man groaned.

"So are you going to like spoon feed me?" The statement was emphasized with Tony wiggling his eyebrows.

"As you said, you are not crucially injured. You are perfectly capable of feeding yourself." Tony pulled a face. A knock on the door alerted Loki to Pepper arrival.

"Come in." He answered the knock.

"By the way, since when have you started calling Pepper, Pepper?" Tony's question went unanswered. Carrying a tray of soup, Pepper managed to open the door and walk in. Upon seeing Tony awake, a grin broke out into her face.

"You bastard!" She cried.

"I am having a serious sense of déjà vu," Tony replied, a slight smile on his face. Shaking her head, Pepper put the tray on the night stand and turned to face Tony.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I got run over by a truck,"

"You look like it too." Tony shot a playful glare at his friend.

"Soup?" He asked once again.

"Yeah, chicken soup."

"Awesome," Tony replied dryly.

"Should I get Bruce to check up on you?"

"I'm fine Pepper! I just need to rest." Tony shot a wink at Loki.

"Uh huh …" Pepper replied. She glanced at Loki and then said, "Well, listen, I need to go deal with all the work that's been piling up, so if you need anything ring me up. And don't you dare exert yourself." With that being said Pepper proceeded to walk out of the room. "Yes, mother!" Tony called out after her. The last thing he saw was Pepper's grin before the door closed. The thought that Pepper had left only because she trusted him in Loki's hands, occurred to Tony.

Shaking his head, Loki turned away from Tony and looked around the room. All the while, he could feel the other man's gaze on him.

"This is so weird." Tony expressed after a while.

"Hm ..." was Loki's reply.

"I never thought I would be sick in bed and have you sitting next to my bed, tending to me." This time Loki didn't offer any type of reply.

"Loki?" Tony's voice was barely above a whisper, his eyes clouded over. He looked lost in thought.

"Yes?"

"When I was being held captive, the Draug's … they tortured me or something,"

A grin tugged at Loki's lips when he heard Tony's choice of words. What was wrong with him?

"I had these dreams … well, nightmares more like. They told me it was my worst nightmare in repeat."

Loki's ears perked up.

"And … I saw you."

Something deflated inside of the god.

"I … am … your worst fear?" He asked slowly, not looking at the other man. He didn't know where this sense of disappointment came from.

"No … I guess that came out wrong. I saw you, but I also saw Pepper, Steve, Bruce, and a shit load of other people."

"Then?"

"They said that my worst fear was to be betrayed and hurt by those that are close to me and that I love."

Loki did not understand the direction this conversation was going in. He was still mulling over the fact that he and this mortal had the same fears.

"But the thing is, I don't love you and I don't consider myself being close to you either, so then why did I see you? That's what I wanted to ask."

"You ask me as if I would know the answer."

"Good answer." Tony leaned further back into his pillow.

"Pepper, Steve, and Bruce I can understand. But you … I mean …" Tony paused.

A moment of silence.

"What do you think when you look at me"

A chuckle emitted from Loki's lips.

"What type of question is that?"

"I don't know. It's just a question. Just asking, because I don't think I hate you anymore. But then I don't like you either. You're fun to talk to when you're not being a dickwad … okay, even when you're being a dickwad, but not when you're a rampaging evil dud."

"That's good to know."

Silence.

"You know when someone says something like that to you, you're supposed to answer back with something similar."

Loki just stared at the human.

"Oh, so there's still some animosity?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"Just eat the god damned soup, Stark."

"We're back to Stark now, huh?"

Loki growled. Yet another moment of silence.

"I don't know what I think first when I look at you." He answered truthfully. He still didn't know what to make sure of the human in front of him. All he knew was that the feeling in his stomach was going to be the death of him. He also knew that the human intrigued him. But most of all, Loki knew that every time he saw the human, he wanted to hurt him. To make him know true pain, and yet Loki knew all too well that if anyone knew pain, it was Anthony Stark.

"That's good, because neither do I. And that's why I am so confused! If I knew I hated you, I could just dismiss this whole thing. If I knew that I liked you then I would be okay with it. But I don't hate you and I don't like you."

"You sound ridiculous. I wish to ask you if you really are Tony Stark?"

"I don't sound like myself, right? But wouldn't you be confused if you were told that you like someone that you don't?"

"Why are you so adamant on that fact?" Loki's own voice startled him.

"I don't know." Tony sighed in frustration. "Ugh, my brain is about to explode," the man groaned, running a hand through his hair and making a face.

This time Loki laughed outright. Pushing a strand of hair out of his face, he faced Tony. A thought seized him and he smiled. It would be quite fun. He knew he would regret it in the morning and that it would be his undoing, but he was so far gone already, what did it matter?

"Stop staring at me like that. The thoughts running through my head are scaring me."

That was the last push that Loki needed. His stomach exploded and with it all rational thought left him. Loki's body went to auto-pilot and he felt his hand gather the fabric of Tony's shirt in his fist. As he pulled the human closer to him a part of Loki's mind that was still somehow working properly, wondered why Tony wasn't resisting.

* * *

He knew it was coming. He knew it was going to happen as soon as he had asked Loki what he thought of him. Somewhere in the depths of his soul he knew exactly what he felt for Loki, but he just couldn't face it. He had realized it sometime in the cave, but he couldn't believe it. That's why when he felt Loki's hand clutch his shirt, he hadn't done anything. A part of him wanted it just to see how he would react, to see how Loki would react. Tony knew that at the moment both of them were out of their mind and that they would probably regret this in the morning, but at the moment he didn't resist as his lips met Loki's.

The kiss was bruising. It was painful and … depressing. It was as if all the pain ever inflicted onto the two of them was pouring itself out. The fierceness that Loki fought with in battle, the longing and pain always hidden in his eyes … it all translated into this one simple gesture: a gesture that was meant to break. Tony was sure of it. This kiss was nothing more than the result of barbaric hunger and longing; the want to belong, to feel needed and loved. This wasn't love; it was lust, lust for acceptance and understanding. A cold empty feeling seized his insides and he only pressed harder.

Tony's head was aching again and his lungs were screaming but he ignored it all. Instead he was focused on the pain caused by the way the two men were interlocked. It was as if they wanted to eat each other's life force away, a weird metaphor, Tony knew. The few inches that had separated them were gone and Tony wasn't sure if he was halfway on Loki's chair and Loki himself, or if Loki was on the bed. All he knew was that he wanted to push Loki until he broke. He wanted to see just how far the god could go before shattering. Or if he would break first. Without breaking apart, Tony slid his hands out from his sides and trailed his way up to Loki's hair. He had always adored Loki's hair, especially the way it curled at his shoulders.

Centuries past, entire kingdoms fell to their demise, the Sun burned out, but none of it mattered. What mattered was the fact that Tony could hear his heart pound in his ears and the fact that breathing was becoming difficult. What mattered was that every cell in his body was screaming in protest but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pull away. What mattered was that Loki was pressed up against him; he wasn't called Silver tongue for nothing. No, Tony did not just think that. But he had. What mattered was that everything he had been searching for his entire life, he had found in Loki, the worst possible person.

Slowly, the animal hunger faded and Tony resulted to chewing on Loki's bottom lips, green eyes staring into the depths of his soul. It was coming any minute now and Tony was preparing himself. A force knocked him back and he hit the back board of his bed.

Loki was staring at him with livid eyes.

"Are you going to stalk off now, because for the record you instigated it."

"And for that very reason I am not going to stalk off, because if I do I shall be the weaker vessel."

"Weaker vessel? We're not engaging in holy matrimony."

"I didn't mean to imply that we were."

"In fact I still don't know what this is."

"Nor do I."

"I never got to my soup." Tony mentally kicked himself as soon as the words were out.

"Then I shall leave you so you may eat in peace." Loki got up and headed towards the door. His hand was on the door knob when Tony's voice made him pause.

"Loki …?"

"Yes?" He did not turn around. He needed to get out of the room or he was going to crack.

"Never mind."

Loki left the room without another word.

"That wasn't awkward at all. I just kissed a god. They should make shirts with that on it. I just kissed a god and I liked it." The realization dawned on him.

"Screw my fucking life." Tony cried as he fell back onto his bed, his soup forgotten.


	17. Making Amends

Chapter 17

Loki was starving. Laying on his bed, he listened to his stomach growl. He had been awake the whole night tossing and turning and it was currently seven in the morning. He needed breakfast but Tony was probably in the kitchen and Loki was not in the mood to see him. Truth be told, Loki didn't even know why he had decided to avoid Tony. It was just a kiss; a simple kiss. He had kissed a ton of men and he was sure that Tony had too. And anyways, it was custom in Asgard to greet a woman by kissing her hand and he had seen the Midgardians greet each other with a kiss on the cheek a million times. So then why did Loki feel so uneasy now?

Well, first of all, this wasn't just any guy; it was Tony Stark, his supposed enemy. Loki's mind went back to the time Tony had punched him. The cause for the punch had been Tony's disapproval for the reason why Loki acted the way he did: because it was expected, because he was supposed to. So what did the word mean to Loki? Did he have to live up to people's expectations? If he was expected to be Tony's rival, did that mean that he had to hate the guy? But…what if he didn't hate Tony? Then what? Did he ... could he ... was he ... no, no, no. He couldn't be, he didn't and nor was he in lo … Loki shook himself. He was thinking nonsense.

Then what was the meaning behind his stomach doing cartwheels and his mind getting fuzzy whenever the other man was around? What was the meaning of the kiss? Loki knew it wasn't a kiss in greeting, but then ... what could it have been? Just a kiss? Loki wished it could have been just that. But whenever he tried to convince himself that it meant nothing, his brain rejected the excuse. Maybe it was the not knowing that was making Loki so uneasy. Maybe it was the fact that it had been an impulse that was making Loki fret. Why? Why would he even consider kissing Tony? Groaning, Loki turned over on his side to face the door. His stomach growled.

"I am not leaving this room." He said to the still air. Maybe hearing the words out loud would help him abide by them.

* * *

Hours had passed and Loki hadn't moved from his bed. On the other side of the door everything was silent. At first, Loki had worried that maybe something had happened to Tony, after all the man hadn't fully recovered. But then the worry had left Loki and he had decided that either the man was out somewhere or that he was in his lab. One thing was clear though, Pepper wasn't at Stark Towers. Tony had probably turned her away, saying that she needed a day to rest. Did that mean that Tony was just as confused as him?

* * *

It was around 6 p.m when Loki heard a knock. Closing his book, he turned to face the door but did not speak. After a while,

"Who is it?"

"Pizza delivery," the voice was nothing like Tony's. Out of curiosity, Loki got up from his bed and headed towards the door. A part of him was expecting Tony but instead he found a young man holding a box of pizza. Why did he feel disappointed?

"Yes?"

"Pizza Delivery. Mr. Stark already paid but he asked me to take it up to your room."

Hesitantly Loki grabbed the box from the young man. Nodding, he backed away from the door and closed it. Holding the box in his hands Loki shook it. He was, in fact, starving. He stared at the box unsure of what to do. Then, sighing irritably, he opened the door and headed towards Tony's lab.

After all, avoiding problems never made them go away.

* * *

"Stark," Loki said as he walked into the lab. The fact that the door was open and not locked did not go unnoticed by Loki. Had the other man been expecting him?

"Hey Loki," Tony replied without looking up from what he was working on. If he had noticed that Loki had addressed him by his last name, he didn't point it out.

What now?

"What are you working on?" Really? Loki mentally kicked himself. But obviously he was the only one feeling awkward and uneasy. Tony was too busy with whatever he was working on.

"A spare arc reactor."

Loki's interest sparked.

"Why?"

"I don't know when this one might burn out … or if it will burn out. I don't … the Draug's have a thing for osmium, don't they?"

Dread filled Loki's soul.

"They … what? They wouldn ... are you going to be alright?"

Tony shrugged and Loki's heart fell even further.

"I don't know. That's why I'm making a spare. Good to see you crawl out of your hole. What have you been doing in your room all day? Are you going to eat that, because if you don't, I will."

Loki looked down at the box in his hand and then back up at Tony.

"You haven't eaten yet?" He asked wearily.

"Wasn't in the mood for breakfast."

Loki watched as Tony fiddled with the arc reactor. It shocked him how someone like Tony could be so delicate.

"We can share. Not like I can eat this whole thing myself."

"I was hoping you would say that." Tony finally put the reactor down and turned his head towards Loki. His eyes were different. The usual mischievous glint was gone, replaced by a fog.

"Are you feeling okay?" Loki found himself asking. He was totally screwed. Loki did not ask people if they were feeling well. Instead he would want to make them feel miserable. But that Loki was not the one standing in the lab right now. That had never been Loki. That had been what Loki was supposed to be like and in that moment Loki decided that he agreed with Tony. Screw the god damned world and what was expected of him and what he had to do. He was a god, for crying out loud, he did what he wanted.

"Yeah, just tired."

For a while, the two men ate in silence. A question hung between them but neither of them addressed it.

"You know, it's been a while since I've checked up on you. How's everything going? Have you gotten your powers back? Or do you feel them coming back?" Instead of addressing the matter that both men were aching to talk about, Tony shifted the subject to something easier.

Loki waited until he was done chewing.

"I have not yet fully recovered but at moments I do feel my powers returning. The process is very slow."

"But it's better than nothing."

Loki nodded in agreement and Tony turned his attention back to his arc reactor.

"Sta ... Tony?"

The small smirk that formed on Tony's face did not go unnoticed.

"Yeah?"

"Why did the Draugs just let you go?" It was a question that had been bugging him for quite some time now, but still not the question that he wanted to ask.

"Something about a warning? I don't really know, I was unconscious for most of my stay there. When I was awake there would only be one guard in the cave and I would play chess with him sometimes, but yeah. I only heard snippets of conversation when I was going in and out if consciousness. They said that their master had gotten what he wanted and ..."

"You got a Draug to play chess with you?" Loki asked in amazement. The human never ceased to amaze him.

"Yeah, I would have died from boredom otherwise. And they didn't want me dead."

Loki chuckled. "And this master ... did they mention who it was?"

"Pfft ... I wish. But I'm positive that Fury will find a clue or something in that cave."

A silence ensured between the two men, but this time it was different. It wasn't awkward ... it was pleasant.

Another question floated into Loki's mind.

"Where is Thor?"

Tony's head jerked up and he looked at Loki.

"Thor?" He questioned.

"I ask only because I have not seen him about."

The smirk on Tony's face grew.

"He's in Asgard. You didn't hear? All nine realms, well eight if you don't count Earth, are on the verge of collapse. All these races are warring against one another and are threatening Asgard. I don't know what the whole fights about but it's something serious. And I have a feeling the guy that we're looking for is behind it all."

Loki pursed his lips.

"It is like the time when Odin went missing during the long winter."

"This has happened before?" Tony asked incredulously.

Loki nodded and Tony sighed.

"I feel real bad for the big guy." he looked at Loki with eyes that burned into his soul.

Loki looked away.

"I do not. It is his responsibility as soon to be king."

"I get that, but he has to go through all of it alone."

"He has his friends."

"Friends can only go so far."

"Are you suggesting something?"

"No, just stating the obvious. Thor has too many things on his plate."

"He's always had a grand appetite."

Tony shook his head.

"And what if you were king or going to be?"

"But I am not."

"What if you were? Would you want to rule all alone?"

"With power comes sacrifice."

"I wouldn't want that type of power."

Silence.

"You know, Loki, if I were you I would also probably be harboring a grudge against all the world but ... after all this time, I would at least give Thor a chance. Not forgive him or forget or anything like that ... just give him some space. Tell him that I was willing to try to make amends."

"But you are not me."

"But I know what it feels like, Loki. And it feels terrible."

Loki didn't know what 'it' was, but he found himself agreeing.

"Aren't you tired?"

"Of?"

"All of it."

Tony didn't know the half of it. Loki was tired. In the beginning he lived for making Thor's life miserable, but now he had lost that will to fight. Now he was just going through the motions, barely living.

He was so very tired.

* * *

Days passed and things returned to normal. The kiss was forgotten ... well, not forgotten, it's memory still vivid in both men's minds, but it was not addressed; they acted like it never happened. Loki returned to accompanying Tony to his lab to oversee his work and a friendly atmosphere had once again settled between them.

It was one such evening, where the two men were in the lab. They were talking about Tony's taste in music when Jarvis interrupted them.

"Sir, Thor is waiting at the front door."

The smile on Loki's face fell.

"Thank god, the man's finally learned how to use doors. Let him in and tell him to come down to the lab."

"Yes, sir."

"I think I shall return to my room," Loki began to leave but Tony held him back, grabbing him by the arm.

"You think Thor can't go to your room?"

Loki didn't reply.

"Stay," The look in Tony's eyes, understanding and pain, froze Loki's feet to the ground. Why was this mortal so … so .. .Loki couldn't find the correct adjective to describe the man facing him. For a while the two stared at each other, fighting it out. Tony won in the end. Sighing, Loki took his arm from Tony's grip and straightened up.

A few short seconds and a dull thud was audible.

"Anthony?" Thor's heavy voice floated into the lab.

"Come on in," Tony replied. He turned his attention back to his arc reactor.

Thor appeared in the door frame and if he was shocked to find Loki there, he did not show it. Loki, on the other hand, was very shocked to see Thor. It seemed as if the god had aged centuries over the time that the two hadn't seen each other.

"Greetings, Loki." Thor nodded at him. Then he turned his attention to Tony. "My friend, I fear that a catastrophe is near. We need to prepare our forces."

"Catastrophe? Like an invasion?"

"No, much graver than that. I fear that the worlds are going to embark on a war. Signs of rebellion are already showing all over, and peace negotiations aren't going very well. I do not know the source of the trouble, but I believe that it has to do with the Draugs and Frost Giants. With the way things are now, if Midgard was to be targeted, I fear that we would not be able to hold our ground. And it probably will be targeted. More land equals more power and Midgard is vital ground in a battle such as the one about to take place."

"So what can I do about that? Unless, you want me to produce weapons?" Tony's voice was harsh. A touchy subject, Loki guessed. And then he remembered how Tony had called himself a monster.

"Nothing of the sort, my comrade. I merely ask that you prepare yourself. I am only delivering a warning so that we can prepare. What measures you are to take is upon your shoulders. I have already discussed the matter with Fury and he is preparing his army. I just wish to warn my friends."

Tony nodded, relaxing his shoulders.

"How long do you think we have?"

"I do not know. The Draugs and Frost Giants have stopped moving so it could be months, but one can never be too sure."

Tony sighed and placed his arc reactor down.

"I am the first one you came to?"

"I have already addressed Barton and Tasha, but I have not yet gone to the others."

Tony nodded. "Leave that to me, you look beat. You should rest or something. I have a spare ... I have a ton of spare rooms."

Thor smiled slightly. "You have changed my friend."

"Yeah, yeah." Tony dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand. "Just stay for a night, okay? If you need anything ask Jarvis."

Thor nodded. "Thank you,"

During this exchange Loki was standing stiffly aside from the others.

"Why don't we head up and I'll get you something to eat or something. I can't stand looking at you right now." Making a face, Tony headed up the stairs, motioning for Thor and Loki to follow him.

Thor laughed. "The Man of Iron seems to have lost his iron suit."

Loki figured that Thor wasn't talking about Tony's Iron Man suit.

* * *

Later that night, Loki found himself tossing and turning again, sleep far from his reach. Getting up, he decided to head to the roof for some fresh air.

* * *

Loki opened the door to the roof and found that someone was already there. Seeing Thor's familiar silhouette, he slowly backed away but it was too late.

"Loki?" Thor questioned turning around to face him.

The god of mischief stood frozen, but then as he regained his sense, he nodded. Realizing that Thor couldn't probably see him since he was standing in the shadows, he spoke,

"Yes."

"Having trouble sleeping?" Despite everything that was wrong in Thor's life, he still had the ability to worry about others. Loki shook his head at the idiot. He was too soft-hearted. Words that were meant in spite came out sounding amused and friendly. What was happening to Loki?

"Yes."

"Nightmares?"

"No."

"Does something trouble you?"

"It is amusing how you can worry about me when you yourself are so lost."

"Even if you do not consider yourself my brother, I believe that you are still my family, and when a family member is in trouble another one helps."

Loki laughed.

"You do not believe my words?"

"No. I have lost all faith in family."

"And yet you look so at home with Anthony."

The wind was knocked out of Loki.

"Home and family are not the same thing." Loki said lamely in his defense.

"Home is where you can return to, family is those who love you. You return to those who love you and therefore home is where family is."

Loki laughed again, though he was beginning to feel uneasy.

"How have you been? Your illness is fine now?"

"I am in the process of recovering."

Thor nodded.

"Friend Tony has been taking good care of you." It was a statement not a question. The uneasy feeling grew.

"You too have changed."

As much as Loki hated to admit it, he had.

"I know your answer, but I will ask you once again in hope that it will change. Will you return home with me, Loki?"

The feeling of unease spread through Loki's body and his heartbeat quickened. He didn't understand what was going on. Thor's face was pleading with him and in the back of his mind, Tony's words were repeating over and over.

But Loki couldn't give in. Not after everything he had been through … so then what was that gnawing feeling in the pit of Loki's stomach.

"I can not return home with you … yet." Loki found himself saying, horrified as the words left his mouth. Thor's face lit up with hope.

"Then some day?" he asked.

Loki shook his head.

"I fear that I have lost my home in Asgard and it will take centuries for me to call Asgard my home again. I … have no home, not anymore." Why was Tony's face floating in his head? Curse the human. "But …" Loki found himself continuing. What was wrong with him? And then it struck him. He had given up. He'd given up the moment he saw Thor's face earlier in the day. "But I am willing to try to make amends." Loki sighed. The human had messed him up, terribly.

Thor's face broke out into a smile.

"I have yearned to hear those words." Thor joyfully spoke as he embraced Loki. The god of mischief struggled against the other god's hold, but soon he gave up. The uneasy feeling went away and now all of his insides felt like mush. He found himself thinking that he had missed Thor's bone breaking embraces and he mentally kicked himself. But what was the point?

"Can I join the group hug?" Tony's voice reached Loki's ears and he thought he was imagining but then when he heard Thor laugh, he knew that the other man was really there. The misery.

"Do I have you to thank for the Loki standing before me?" Thor asked as he let go of Loki.

Tony shook his head.

"No."

Smiling, Thor turned away from Tony and took in the sight of his brother. Behind Thor's back, Tony winked at Loki, and in that moment Loki realized that he had no chance. He had fallen and he had fallen hard.


	18. Story Time

Chapter 18

Despite the dark cloud that hung over their heads, life for Tony and Loki had become pleasant. Days were spent in the lab, on the roof, watching TV, strolling through Central Park (Pepper had insisted that Tony get outside and get some fresh air so that he could recover faster), and just being in each other's company. If Pepper thought this was weird, she didn't say anything. In fact, she seemed to like the fact that the two men were spending all their time together. Whatever the case was, Tony and Loki didn't mind. They were too busy with each other and too lost in their own thoughts to worry about others. Neither of them knew what was going on. All they knew was they liked it, whatever 'it' was. Okay, well maybe, in the deepest darkest parts of their hearts and souls the two men were fully aware of what was going on. But, they felt that if they said the words out loud the spell would break. Both of them had lost faith in the words that to hear them again would shatter the perfect world that they had built. Things were fine the way they were now, even if both of them were rejecting their feelings. It would all be fine in the end. Thor and Loki had called a truce...of sorts, and the investigation on the Draugs was going well. And anyways, it wasn't like Tony might drop dead at any moment (a fact that only Loki was aware of) or that there might be a massive invasion sometime in the near future.

* * *

Currently, it was around 7 in the evening and Tony and Loki were sprawled across the couch watching the first Transformers movie.

"It is insanity." Loki muttered as the police car on TV changed into a Deceptacon.

Tony, who was leaning against the right side of Loki's body and sitting sideways on the couch, looked towards the TV.

"It's called editing and special effects."

"Hm...?" The god of mischief was too occupied with the movie to notice Tony. Puffing, the genius returned to the memo he had gotten from SHIELD. It was the same thing as always: send a report on Loki's progress, send report on any new inventions, and keep a watchful eye since everything was on red alert.

"Give me something to invent!" Tony groaned as he threw his head back, and since he was leaning on Loki his head ended up on the god's shoulder.

For the past few days Tony would go to his lab and just stare at all his equipment. He was having inventor's block.

Chuckling, Loki brought his hand to Tony's hair, a subconscious action. Tony raised his eyebrows at the ceiling.

"I feel like a little kid who's about to go to bed and his mother is telling him a story." Tony shrugged his shoulders. The feeling had just come to him out of nowhere. "Not that I would know what that feels like," He added after a moment.

The hand running through his hair stopped. Even though he wasn't looking at him, Tony could see Loki purse his lips. For some reason, other than in his most vulnerable moments or when he wasn't paying attention (like with running his hand through Tony's hair), Loki always hesitated before showing affection. Tony understood this very well, since he was the same. Why did the two have to be so perfect for each other? Sometimes the world made no sense.

"Frigga used to tell Thor and I stories all the time when it was time to retire for the day."

A silence ensured in which the only sound was that of the TV. After a moment Loki laughed.

"What's so funny?"

Slight movement alerted Tony to the fact that Loki was shaking his head. He knew that his neck would hurt like hell later, but as of now Tony was too comfortable to move.

"You were right. For the most part, my childhood was bliss." Loki's voice was wistful.

"I have a sudden urge to ask you to tell me one of those stories." Tony changed the subject. He didn't want Loki to crawl back into the abyss that he was climbing out of.

More laughter.

"Shall I shut off the t.v?"

"I was just joking, but sure. I've already watched this movie a dozen times."

The TV was turned off and Loki began to think.

"Hm..."

"Wait!" Tony cried out.

"What is it?"

Straightening himself, Tony proceeded to lay down, his head in Loki's lap. The god's eyes slightly widened.

"Just making myself comfortable, if you don't mind."

Loki shook his head, his lips pursed to keep himself from smiling. Why did the human affect him so? What a stupid question. He knew why.

"There so many..." Loki went back to thinking.

"How about one with a corrupt king and a knight of valor?"

Loki looked at the other man with questioning eyes. Tony shrugged it off.

"Kid at heart. I never knew my mom. She passed away in childbirth. So, because I don't know from experience, fairy tales were always the type of stories I imagined mothers telling their kids. Except I think I am a little too old for those, so I settled for a corrupt king."

Pain stabbed Loki's chest. He felt terrible. He had had a childhood, maybe it wasn't perfect, but it was still a childhood. And he had thrown it all away. The man in front of him hadn't known a mother's love and from Loki's knowledge he hadn't had a childhood; boy genius, outcast, MIT at age 15, strict father. This is what the human had done to him; made him soft. But that didn't matter. Loki liked it. It was better than the infernal cold that had settled in him. In the past few days in which he was spending his time with Tony that cold had started to fade away.

"Corrupt kings and knights of valor, it is." Loki answered. "Lets see...how to begin?" Loki grinned. "In a faraway land, is cliché and cheesy is it not?"

"I donno, sounds good to me."

"Okay then." Loki cleared this throat. "In a faraway land..." he began.

* * *

By the time Loki had finished with his story, Tony's eyes were fighting sleep. Looking at him, Loki smiled.

"Tony?" He asked. The man snapped his eyes open.

Yawning he spoke. "Curse that voice of yours."

Loki's smile grew.

"You know I think I should keep you near my bed for those nights when I can't fall asleep."

The sentence was not at all innocent; the look in Tony's eyes made that very clear.

"I rather stay in my own quarters."

"This story...I liked it. Another!"

This time Loki burst out laughing. Tony didn't mind, he actually quite liked the sound.

"Classic." He said when he was done with his fit of laughter. A strange feeling of happiness flooded Loki. He hadn't felt like this in a long time.

"Mimicking Thor is always fun."

The god of mischief nodded in agreement. "Another?" he asked.

"What time is it?"

"It's currently 9 p.m."

"Wow, it didn't feel like it but that was a long story. Two hours? God damn...wow. But..." Tony paused to think it over. He truly reminded Loki of a little kid.

"Too early for me to be sleeping, but sure."

"You just like hearing me talk, don't you?"

It was Tony's turn to laugh.

"That's a part of it."

"What this time?"

"Tell me one of your favorite childhood stories."

"Hm..." Loki tried to remember all the stories that Frigga had told him and Thor as kids.

"One of my favorites...okay." He said after a while.

"Just one thing before you start,"

"Yes?"

Before he knew it, Loki found himself caught in a kiss. This was unlike the one the two men had shared before. This one was hesitant, questioning. Whatever the question was Loki's answer was yes, because instinct took over and Loki deepened the kiss.

It seemed like eternity had passed before the two men broke apart. Loki found himself missing the closeness.

"Okay, you can start now." Tony laid back down in Loki's lap.

"May I ask what that was about?"

"I've been wanting to do that for quite some time now. You look adorable from this angle." Tony winked at the god.

"You're mocking me aren't you?"

"Story?" the man asked innocently.

Muffling laughter, Loki began.

* * *

By the time Loki was finished, Tony had fallen asleep in his lap. Loki once again pursed his lips. It was too late to turn back, he knew and yet as much as he wanted to be with the human, a part of him wasn't willing. A part of him was still resentful and full of hate. It was telling him that this relationship would end in disaster and Loki knew it was right, but he couldn't help himself. He was in lo...lo...He was in lo...ve with Tony Stark. It was hard enough to say the word in his own thoughts, Loki dreaded saying it out loud. He still couldn't believe his feelings for the man but they were there and at the moment as Loki looked down at Tony's peaceful face, they were all that mattered.

* * *

**A/N: F****or the whole thing with Tony's mother, I think both his parents died in a plane crash or something? I am not entirely sure so I made something up.**


	19. Close Call

Chapter 19

When Loki woke up, Tony was missing. Well, maybe not missing...he just wasn't sleeping on his lap. Getting up Loki stretched, turning his neck left to right. The cracking noises made him wince. Yawning, he headed off to his room to freshen up. 'Tony's probably in his lab,' he thought.

* * *

Half an hour later, at one, Loki walked back into the living room and found that it was still empty. Figures. He had half a mind to ask Tony if he already had breakfast, but he decided against it. Stomach growling, Loki headed towards the kitchen. He would cook himself a meal.

* * *

After he was done, Loki still did not head down to the lab; for some reason he just didn't feel like it. Instead he headed towards his room planning on finishing the book he was reading.

* * *

"Sir Loki I request that you head down to the lab right away." Jarvis interrupted Loki, his voice sounding frantic. It was some time in the afternoon and Loki had spent the whole day in his room.

Loki lazily looked up from his book.

"How come?"

"Master Tony has collapsed. His arc reactor is burning his body and it's deteriorating. He is coughing up blood due to the osmium. I do not have time to explain. Please head down to the lab as quick as you can."

For a moment Loki sat still, frozen in his position. Once he regained his senses he jumped off his bed and sprinted towards the lab, the cold feeling returning.

* * *

Loki skidded to a stop right in front of Tony's desk. The man was currently having a coughing fit, blood spitting out from his mouth. He was clawing at his arc reactor with one hand, the other hand gripping the edge of his desk.

Loki fell to his knees, his body paralyzed with shock.

"To...Ton...Jarvis? What do I do?" He managed to choke out.

Tony coughed and sputtered some more before losing his grip on the desk and rolling onto his back.

"You have to remove his arc reactor and replace it with the new one that he was making the other day."

"Hang in there, Tony." Loki whispered as he shot up and frantically searched through the mess on Tony's desk. With every passing second the profanities coming from Loki's mouth increased. He couldn't find the reactor. Quickening his pace he searched through all of the drawers. No luck. One more drawer to go and as Loki tried to pull it open, he found that it was stuck.

"DAMN IT!" He screamed as he tried to yank it open. He quickly turned his head to face Tony, whose condition was only worsening. Blood soaked his shirt and it had formed in a little puddle around him. He was struggling to get onto his knees, his whole body visibly shaking.

"Come on," Loki spoke through gritted teeth and the drawer finally burst open, all its contents landing on the floor. Loki got on his knees once again and searched through everything and finally he found it. Clutching it in his hand, he scrambled over to Tony. Helping the man get to his knees, Loki ripped his shirt off and saw that the arc reactor was blinking. Tony's chest was a bluish green color, his veins popping out. Loki winced.

"What now, Jarvis?" Loki's voice was wavering.

"I shall guide you through it," Jarvis replied. He seemed calm now.

Loki put on hand around Tony's neck and held it up, so that the two men were looking each other in the eyes.

"It's going to be okay," He assured him as he began to replace the arc reactor.

* * *

By the time Loki had replaced the arc reactor, he too was covered in Tony's blood. It had been a heart wrenching process.

Tony now lay, breathing heavily, in Loki's arms, his hair matted with his own blood. It had been one time too many where Tony's legs would fail him, his knees turning to jelly, and the upper half of his body would plummet to the ground, head first.

"It's all okay now?" Loki asked, unsure. Tony still looked pale and unwell.

"Yeah," Tony managed to get out. He tried to straighten himself into a sitting position and Loki helped him.

"Thanks..." Tony's voice was hoarse.

"Don't talk. It looks painful."

The man shot him a weak smile.

"This is why you should have given me arms, sir." Jarvis injected.

"Its okay, Jarvis. I have Loki." The words had barely left his mouth and Tony was out cold, his shining chocolate eyes briefly staring at Loki's green ones. Thank god for Loki's reflexes. He caught Tony in his arms, before he could hit the ground.

"I shall dial Ms. Potts."

Loki could do nothing but nod.

* * *

Loki was in his room, lying on his bed. He was trying not to think. His demons were once again taunting him and he wasn't going to have it. Except… Loki knew that in the end his demons would win.

"Okay." Loki said to himself. "I'll leave...but...tomorrow."

He couldn't help but think that somehow this was all his fault. He knew it wasn't, after all it was Thor who acted rashly and had gotten the Avengers involved. Loki didn't ask the Avengers to save him or for Tony to vaporize the Draugs' emperor. And it wasn't like he had asked to be kidnapped.

Yet, despite all this, Loki still felt like it was all his fault. Seeing Tony in the state he was in had shaken him pretty bad and the cold was slowly returning. Look at what the mortal had degraded him to.

Loki sighed.

He couldn't stay with Tony. Staying with him would only hurt Tony. Hurt them both. Loki was tired of being hurt. He didn't want his loved ones... one, to suffer because of him and he didn't want to suffer because Tony was in pain.

"Tomorrow," Loki spoke to the still air.

Because even after everything that had happened, Loki was selfish. At least, that's what he told himself.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: LAST CHAPTER! It might get kind of confusing towards the middle but I tried my best to make it really nice and stuff so I hope you all enjoy! **

* * *

Loki woke up covered in sweat, his whole body shaking. He had dreamed of Tony's fit, except this time he hadn't reached Tony in time.

Getting up from his bed, Loki headed towards the window and pulled open the drapes back and smiled. Memories of the day when Tony had first met Thor came back to him. He remembered being left on a cliff to watch the two fight. "Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"

Loki's smile grew. Even then the line had made him chuckle, despite the circumstances.

"I can't believe I threw him out of a window," Loki laughed to himself. He really had gotten soft.

"I wonder how he's doing right now," Loki spoke to his reflection in the window. It was sometime in the afternoon, maybe around one? Pepper had been with Tony the whole night and the whole evening the day before, taking care of him so he should be fine.

"Ugh...stop. Just stop. He's a god damned human! And you're a god. How could you have degraded yourself so?"

And yet Loki couldn't convince himself. Groaning, he headed back towards his bed.

* * *

"How is he?" Even though he still wasn't fully aware of what was going on, Tony could make out Steve's voice through the buzzing.

"He's getting better. He's much better than before, he's breathing normally again and his skin looks normal again." A pause, "Thank god Loki was here."

That's when everything started to come back to Tony. His arc reactor had begun to burn out and Loki had changed it for him.

Tony struggled to open his eyes and when he finally managed to pry them open, he was blinded by the light. All his senses seemed to be enhanced and for the moment every breath echoed in his skull and the smell of perfume and cologne clogged up his nose. And then that moment was over.

"Pepper?" He asked, only because he couldn't see her. The only thing he could see was the ceiling. That may have been because he was laying in bed. He struggled to get up and managed to hoist himself into a sitting position.

"T...Tony." Pepper exclaimed. With her in the room were Steve and Bruce.

"Deja vu," Tony grinned.

"You shouldn't be forcing yourself like that," Steve supplied.

"I am leaning against the back board, its okay. And it was nothing serious, I am better." And it was true. Tony felt much better. The arc reactor's burning had only caused momentary pain and the pain had gone away after the arc reactor was replaced. He had fainted from exhaustion. Truth be told, Tony was glad things turned out the way they did.

"Well even though you could have died, it was a good thing wasn't it? All the osmium is out of your system now." Bruce voiced Tony's thoughts.

Tony nodded.

"Where's Loki?" He asked after a moment. He had expected to wake up and find Loki at his bedside. He was a little disappointed.

Steve furrowed his brows as Pepper replied.

"He's still in his room. I think he might still be sleeping."

"Oh..."

"Tony?" Steve spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"I know this is a terrible time to pull this on you,"

"I told you I'm fine now." Tony cut him off.

"But, Fury wants to hold another meeting. He said he finally got the results of the investigation and Thor's back, too. He also says he has some important news."

"Any idea what they're on about?"

"None. They were waiting for you to regain consciousness. Should we call them all in?"

"Go ahead."

* * *

All the Avengers, Nick Fury, and Pepper were sitting in Tony's kitchen/dining room. Currently, Fury was filling all of them in on the results of the investigation.

"It took weeks, the best men we could conjure, and all our strength, but we finally have it. Due to the lab equipment that the Draugs left behind, they probably left in a rush, we traced the whole mess back to Olomo Volgar."

No one noticed Thor's face hardening.

"And we're supposed to know who that is?" Tony commented. Fury shot him a glare.

"Yes. Olomo Volgar, nominee for the Nobel Science Prize, exiled Asgardian, terribly old man who doesn't look like it. He's a world renowned chemist and now evil mastermind."

"I remember that convention. You were invited to it, remember Tony?" Pepper turned to her boss and best friend.

"No." Tony replied.

"Well you should. He's the one behind all of this." Fury commented.

"And you got all this from lab equipment?" Tony questioned. Everyone else was silent.

"We hired the best detective we could find."

Tony looked at him unbelieving.

"I never heard of this guy. And if he's an exiled Asgardian...how'd he fit in on Earth?" Tony looked at Thor, who offered no reply.

"That holds no importance. As for the exiled Asgardian, only one of us here can explain that."

Everyone looked towards Thor, who's tense faced only tensed more. Loki chose that moment to walk in.

Looking around lazily, he took in the sight before him.

"Am I interrupting something?" He drawled.

"Loki, my brother, our enemy is Olomo."

In a split second emotions of shock, rage, terror, and depression shot across Loki's face. And then it hardened.

"He's back?"

"I am afraid so."

"Who's this Olomo guy?" Tony asked once again. He hadn't liked the looks on Loki's face.

Thor sighed.

"I shall get to that, but before, I am afraid that I bear grave news. As I have told Director Fury, my father, Odin, has disappeared from Asgard and war is closer than ever. We have searched far and wide but he is nowhere to be found. The fate of Asgard now rests on my shoulders and I fear that it may be too much for me to handle."

"It's quite like Odin to leave Asgard in times of distress."

"Brother," Thor snapped.

"You know it's true." Loki replied lazily as he headed towards the kitchen.

"Don't worry, Thor, you'll do just fine. You have us to fall back on." Steve, always the comforting one.

"I rather not be squashed," Tony joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"So war in inevitable?" Bruce asked form his seat.

"With the way things are happening now, it seems so." Thor replied.

"Tell us about Olomo." Natasha spoke up.

"Olomo is the...how do you mortals put it? Step brother, of Odin." Loki came back, a bowl of cereal in his hands.

"What?" A chorus of voices spoke out. Whatever they had been expecting, it was not that.

"Olomo was our father's brother through his father's mistress." Thor announced.

"So...he's a god?" Clint asked.

"Technically, yes." Loki replied.

"What do you mean technically?" Natasha shot at Loki.

"He's been exiled from Asgard, so that kind of strips his status of god. Technically he is, but he has no more power than a normal Midgardian."

"Apparently, he does." Fury injected.

"And that is where this whole things gets even more confusing." Loki replied back.

"What do you mean?" Tony questioned.

Loki sighed. Tony could just imagine him thinking 'incompetent mortals.' He seemed off today.

"What I mean is, Olomo had his power taken by Odin. He shouldn't have been able to go to Hel or Jotunheim, much less access the Draugs and Frost Giants. And mind you, Olomo was killed, slaughtered, destroyed, incinerated. His spirit was locked up in Niflheim, the land in between. There must be someone else; someone who brought him back and gave him new powers."

"This is getting messier by the moment," Steve moaned as he leaned back into his chair. Everyone else slowly nodded. Loki just looked bored.

"Land in between what?" Tony couldn't help himself. No one answered his question.

"If it is indeed Olomo, then the whole thing makes sense. He probably convinced the Draugs and Frost Giants to overthrow Asgard as revenge. As for the other rebelling races..." Loki paused in thought. A smile grew on his face and he shook his head. Laughing, he spoke.

"He's a smart one. All other realms are decaying. Even Midgard; the humans are bringing destruction upon themselves and their land. He's using that and saying that Asgard is hoarding all the fortune. Not only that, but he probably brought up the pact of nine."

Groans.

"And what is that?" Fury spoke through gritted teeth.

"It's what you mortals would call a foreign policy."

"And...?" Tony asked.

"It was when leaders of the nine realms entrusted each other with power. They also made a pact that they would not unleash destruction on each other's territories without a reason that was deemed legit by a council."

"And how does that make any sense?" Pepper asked from her corner. She went ignored.

"The first time the pact was ignored, that was the first Great War between Odin and Laufey, the council and rulers let it go. The second time," Loki paused and pursed his lips. "The second time the pact was ignored was when the Frost Giants invaded Asgard and tried to steal the tesseract and the Destroyer was unleashed on them. Odin managed to convince everyone to let it go. Olomo probably said that Asgard and Odin are throwing their weight around and that they will bring the downfall or all other realms."

"I'm confused." Clint said after Loki was finished.

"You're up against a cunning old fool driven by a thirst for power and lust for revenge. The worst kind really," Loki summed it up.

Steve coughed. Even though nothing was said Loki understood. He had been that person, except for the 'old fool' part.

"Why was he exiled?" Natasha asked after a moment of silence.

"He tried to overthrow my father and take the throne. Olomo was always living in my father's shadow...being the mistress' son." This time it was Thor who replied.

The story seemed all too familiar.

"What is it with you people and your crazy revenge cycles?" Clint exclaimed.

"You speak as if you mortals are not the same."

No one looked Loki in the eyes.

"Wait, so just to straighten it all out." Tony spoke up, looking Loki straight in the eyes. He knew something was wrong with him.

Loki's heart twisted and he began to mentally scold himself.

"Our enemy is this Olomo person who has been living as a human on Earth since his exile from Asgard."

Thor and Loki nodded.

"He was a god but tried to overthrow his step brother and was thrown out of Asgard."  
More nods.

"Now he has an army of undead soldiers, Frost Giants, and god knows what else, and is out for revenge?"

Nods.

"And this army might invade Earth?"

"Most probably," both brothers spoke simultaneously.

"He's probably going to invade all the realms. Just Midgard or just Asgard is not good enough for Olomo." This was Loki's reasoning.

It was Fury's turn to speak.

"How do we fight this guy?"

"If father was sti..."

"But he's not." Loki snapped, interrupting Thor. He could make amends with Thor, but never with Odin and the pain was still fresh and his cut even deeper upon hearing that Odin had abandoned his people in this time of need.

Thor gave Loki his best puppy dog's eyes.

"Bother, come back to Asgard with me so we both can defend it."

Loki shook his head.

"I think I am needed here. Asgard has its hero."

"And Earth has its many heroes." Thor replied.

"Thor...no. I shall stay on Midgard. I...have debts I need to repay."

Thor briefly glanced at Tony and then looked at Loki.

"Then, if I am absent from Midgard again, I name you her protector alongside my friends."

"But he's the bad guy!" Clint protested.

"He is my brother."

"He killed innocent people." Natasha added to the argument.

"And he regrets it and is trying to make amends."

"Regretting it won't bring them back."

"But if he saves more lives from being lost..." Thor let the sentence hang and Clint and Natasha could do nothing other than look towards Fury. Fury, on the other hand was looking at Tony.

"What?" Tony asked, looking at everyone since they were all looking at him now.

"Your call Stark. You said it yourself; he's your prisoner and therefore your responsibility."

Seeing that Tony didn't even have to hesitate what little resolve Loki had left, shattered.

"I agree with him. He should stay here."

"So back to my earlier question. How to we defeat this guy?" Fury changed the subject.

"We prepare. I shall try to ease the rebellion in other realms. If I can put out the fire there, then there is not much to fear." Thor already looked worn out and tired.

"And about the Draugs?" Pepper asked.

"Tony, you found something to invent?" Loki asked, interrupting the whole conversation.

Tony shook his head. Everyone else looked confused at the fact that Loki had just called Tony by his first name.

"Embed a flamethrower in your suit. And give Barton arrows that set the target on fire. And give Romanoff flamethrower guns. Banner, Rogers, and my brother should be fine. They can set for decapitation."

Based on the looks on everyone's faces, no one understood other than Tony, who broke out into a smile.

"Fire and decapitation, the only known weaknesses for Draugs." Tony explained.

"So far they've always caught you off guard. This time they won't." With that being said, Loki left the room.

Clint craned his neck so that he could see Loki walk out.

"What happened to him?" He asked.

Tony hid his smile.

* * *

It was later that day and everyone had gone home, their head's spinning. The whole situation was messier that they all had thought; the war, this Olomo, the person controlling Olomo, Odin's disappearance, the Draugs, the book or nine realms, and god knows what else.

Tony was in his room, tossing and turning on his bed. He couldn't sleep. Part of the reason was the meeting and part of the reason was that he hadn't been able to talk to Loki properly all day. Getting up, he started to pace across his room.

A few minutes later there was a knock at his door. 'Who could it be?' Tony thought. It couldn't be Loki; Loki didn't knock.

Opening the door, Tony found Loki.

"Wha..." Words failed him.

Loki weakly smiled.

"It's two in the morning," Tony said quickly tossing a glance at his digital clock...not that he minded Loki showing up at his bedroom door in black silk pajamas that clung to his body. 'Snap out of it, Tony." He chided himself.

"Seeing that your awake, I don't see the point of you telling me that." Loki replied, his green eyes shining with anguish.

"Come in?" It was more of a question than a command.

Loki nodded and Tony stepped aside, letting him in.

"Is something wrong?" Tony asked, closing the door.

Loki shook his head.

"Couldn't sleep," His words were laced with pain and Tony felt his stomach twist.

"Neither can I."

"I can see."

Tony chuckled.

"Something bothering you?"

Loki had been standing with him back to Tony but now he spun on his heels and faced Tony, his eyes frantic.

"I...I..." He began, but could not continue. He couldn't.

"What?" Tony questioned, not quite understanding. He saw something break in Loki's eyes. What was going on?

"I..."

Anticipation was building up in Tony's heart and it shouldn't have been. He knew it wasn't what he was expecting.

"Why did you decide to keep me here when you could have finally gotten rid of me?"

Tony pursed his lip. For a god Loki was pretty stupid.

"Because I don't want to get rid of you, you douchebag. I want you here."

"Why?" Loki asked in hope that Tony wouldn't reply. He needed Tony to deny what both men knew was true.

"Why?" Tony threw the question back at Loki.

"Yes, why?" Loki looked like a lost child.

"Because I just do." Tony shrugged the matter off, not saying the words he knew he should say.

Loki's eyes lost the look of despair and hardened. He straightened up and stiffened. Nodding he repeated Tony's words.

"Because you just do."

"Yeah."

"Goodnight, Tony." Loki made a move to walk out the room but Tony caught him by his shoulder.

"Stay?" He asked.

Loki raised his eyebrows at him.

"It's two in the morning."

"Seeing that you're the one that came to my room at two in the morning, I don't see the point of you telling me that."

Loki let his walls fall one last time.

"I'll..." he paused. "I'll...stay."

For some reason Tony wished that Loki hadn't said it. A dread filled his stomach and he knew. He knew exactly what was going on. He knew because he had done the same. He had said he'd stay...and then...maybe if he had said what they both wanted to hear, things wouldn't turn out the way they were going to. But it was too late now.

"I only have one bed."

"I think I can manage."

"You trust me?"

"I believe that you are too scared of Thor's wrath to try."

Tony chuckled.

"I would have preferred that you say that you trusted me."

"But I don't."

Tony looked at Loki with wide eyes, he hadn't been expecting that.

"Oh..no," Loki seemed to sense his mistake. "I didn't mean it like that...oh gosh, Tony, look at what you've done to me! I meant that...not with this, I don't."

"Oh," Tony managed to laugh. "Well you were right about the Thor thing."

"I know."

Laughing, Tony pulled the god to his bed. He had a feeling that he would finally get some sleep.

"You know you're really huggable. I always liked hugging stuffed animals while trying to sleep."

Loki groaned.

"Don't make me regret this, Tony."

Tony burst out laughing.

"I am just joking, Loki." A silly smile was on his face and Tony knew it, but he couldn't help himself. It had been ages since he'd felt like this.

"Good night," Tony said, a childish joy seeping through his body replacing the dread. But it would be back, Tony knew. But for now he was going to enjoy the moment.

"Good night," Loki replied, his voice once again pained.

Before he knew it, sleep had arrived and the last thing Tony saw before he fell asleep was Loki's shining green eyes.

* * *

When Tony woke up in the morning, Loki was gone. Tony had a feeling that he wasn't just gone from his bedroom. As he got up, freshened up, and headed out to look for Loki, he confirmed that he was right. Loki was gone. He had searched every corner of the tower but there was no sign of the god.

Now Tony was in Loki's room. Sighing, he closed the door and leaned against it.

"If I had said it, would you have stayed?" He asked the air. He said the word 'it' as if it was something disgusting.

A moment's of silence.

"You bastard...I..." Tony couldn't say it. It sounded so cheesy. He groaned. He was acting like a child. Sighing he spoke.

"Okay, you win. I fucking fell in love with you, you bastard." He said to the empty room.

* * *

**A/N: THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL, so no worries. I wouldn't leave my readers hanging like this! But the thing is that I am not going to be posting it until mid/late July. What else? Uh...just thanks for sticking with this story and all your reviews and kind words! They mean the world to me! And thank you for tolerating my grammar (I have the grammar of a three year old) and just everything!**


	21. Epilogue

Epilogue

Pepper was sitting in Tony's living room looking through a pile of papers when a soft melody reached her ears. Looking up, her eyes found the staircase that led to Tony's lab.

"Hm…" she thought. The melody was different from the usual music that Tony would be blasting from his lab. Sighing, she got up and decided to go check up on him. He hadn't been himself since Loki left, three months ago.

"Tony?" Pepper questioned as she walked down the steps, her heels clicking.

When she got to the glass doors that led to the lab, she saw Tony sitting at his desk, his head in his hands. He was staring at something, his eyes half closed, a small smile on his face.

Punching the number in on the security pad, Pepper walked in.

"What's that?" she asked. It didn't look like Tony had heard. The music had stopped.

Standing behind him, she looked at his latest invention...if you could call it that.

Out of scraps of metal and wood Tony had fashioned a castle that looked like it had popped out of a children's fairy tale. There was a moat, a draw bridge, spiraling towers, and even a look out post. Embroidered flags bearing a crest of some sort were placed around the exterior of the castle. The castle was painted a gray color, had a wooden door, tiny torches around the entrance, and actual chains for the draw bridge.

The delicacy with which Tony worked never stopped amazing Pepper. She noticed that there was a small figurine placed in the lookout post and upon looking closer she found that it was crowned and holding a sword: the king of the castle. Near the draw bridge was a knight on a horse, in full armor.

"What is this, Tony?" Pepper asked, a smile grazing her lips.

"I got bored. It's based on a story about corrupt kings and a knight of valor." His voice was heavy and he offered no other explanation.

"What was that music?"

Instead of replying, Tony reached out and turned one of the torches in a clockwise motion. Immediately the flags began to wave as if being moved by the wind. The horse started to walk towards the draw bridge, which flung open, and the king was walking about the lookout post, brandishing his sword. The music had started up again.

"A music box?" Pepper questioned.

"Sort of."

Pepper laughed. "What's gotten into you?"

"You cleared out Loki's room?" Tony asked instead of replying.

"No..." Pepper had had hope that the god would return...she had grown a little fond of him.

"Put this on the nightstand there, will you?"

The smile on Pepper's face fainted a little.

"Of course,"

It was troubling when she had realized what was going on, but then she had come to accept the fact and now seeing that Tony was aching, she ached too.

* * *

"A month ago: a flood in Africa. A few weeks ago: a drought in the United States. Two weeks ago: a snowstorm in the Middle East. A week ago: hurricanes wreaked havoc in Europe and Russia. Three days ago: endless thunderstorms in New York. Yesterday: A series of earthquakes happening in a variety of cities." Fury read from a list in his hands.

"A lot of freak accidents. How does this concern us?" Tony spoke from his spot around the circular table. The Avengers were meeting in SHEILD NYC headquarters for a change.

"These are not freak accidents. Banner has been tracing these events and he's concluded that these 'natural' disasters are not so natural. Someone's behind them._ Something's_ causing them. Along with these disasters there have been multiple explosions all over the world in a wide range of cities. All the world leaders are on the edge of their seats. If we don't do something soon we might be facing another World War...a nuclear war. So many people have already lost their lives in these disasters and explosions."

Steve's face tensed.

"It's safe to conclude that Olomo is behind these events. I've convinced the president that it's not some foreign terrorist group, but for all we know it could be. Olomo could have teamed up with terrorist groups. We're doing our best to track him down. And thanks to our team we've traced the next explosion or disaster to Tokyo but still no news on the man himself."

"We're going to Tokyo?" Clint asked, surprised.

Fury nodded.

"The joy…" Tony muttered.

* * *

Loki read the letter in his hand again for the hundredth time, even though he had all the words memorized.

_My Dearest Nephew,_

_It has been a great many years since I last saw you, how you must have grown. I heard about your fall from Asgard and I couldn't help but think how similar we both are...we both are broken souls, thirsting for power and revenge. Even as a young one, you were always my favorite. I never really liked Thor much. He resembled my brother in too many ways, and that wasn't a good thing. You, however, you Loki, are just like me. I write to you to tell you of my return. I wish to see you. If it is alright with you, come to Tokyo in a two days time. If you choose to come you'll find me in the middle of the bustling streets. There I shall tell you my plans of revenge and ask you to join your old and frail uncle. Until then._

_ Your loving uncle, _

_ Olomo_

Bile rose in Loki's throat. He crumpled the paper and threw it into the trash can. It had arrived three days ago and as much as Loki tried to stay away, he found himself in Tokyo. Currently he was staying in a small flat that he had "rented". He had come not to join Olomo, but just to find out his plans. He was not the Loki that his uncle had talked about in his letter...he had changed.

A pang went through Loki's heart but he ignored it. He had learned how to overlook the pain.

Getting up from his couch, he headed towards the wall that was made entirely out of glass. Opening up the curtains he stared out at the buildings and crowded streets of Tokyo. For a moment he was reminded of New York City and Stark Towers but Loki had also learned how to block out unwanted thoughts.


	22. Sequel's up

FAR TOO GONE SEQUEL IS UP

Title: Abyss

Summary: "The Avengers will be too busy with their own deteriorating minds to do me or the cause any harm." A threat that the Avengers could never have dreamed up had arisen. The world as they know it is at stake and this time they are terribly outmatched. But even in the darkest of times, there is always hope. And the Avengers find their savior in someone they could never have imagined.

link: type in the link for fanfiction and then copy and paste: /s/8316831/1/Abyss_Far_Too_Gone_Sequel


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